The Guardian and NDR are reporting allegations that Google handed over journalists’ private personal data en masse in response to “catch-all” warrants against WikiLeaks’ employees, and then was not allowed to inform its clients, the journalists, that it did so for more than two years. On the NDR article page you can watch an interview in English with Sarah Harrison, an editor at WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks’ founder asserts that Google was complicit in the USA’s violation of its own constitution. I am not a lawyer, journalist, spy, political agitator, or hacker ((in the criminal sense. But I do try to make software do what I want it to do where I am allowed to, so I guess I am a hacker in that sense.)). But the slippery slope facilitating that hand-over of data, irrespective of its legality, creeps me out. Continue reading More thoughts on consumer privacy and electronic communication