technoculture314-09

This week's lecture was a real eye opener for me. I had never considered the idea that what I am searching for on the internet was recorded and stored by Google, but the idea made me think seriously about how I felt about this issue and brought up many conflicting feelings. The idea that governments can demand access to this information was particularly troubling, but also potentially useful in some cases. For example if the government requested a list of everyone who had searched the internet for instructions on making bombs the vast majority of these people would probably be ordinary citizens curious of how easy it is to find this information since the issue has been so heavily publicised. Those people would have every right to feel indignant about the government investigating their searching habits. However, if someone used this information to harm people I think most people would agree they would have wished that the information could have been used to stop the event. I am reminded of the infamous case where Pete Townshend was investigated by Scotland Yard after having given his credit card details to a website purported to advertise images of child pornography. Mr. Townshend claims that he was simply doing research for an anti-child pornography book (personally I think this has to be one of the most dubious reasons for attempting to access material most people know is illegal), and while this is a clear example of the law being breached I think it helps illustrate the idea that the recording of our online activity has the potential to incriminate potentially innocent people using the internet for the purpose of gathering information. On the whole I think it is perhaps a necessary evil that information on our internet activity is stored because it provides useful data that helps companies like Google provide better service. But I think there needs to be more public discussion on what information is being stored, by whom, and who may gain access to it.