Not So Good

/. had a post on how Sprint released GPS data to law enforcement via automated system 8 million times in a year. The linked blog post has a quote from Eric Schmidt that is quite disturbing.

"The reason we keep [search engine data] for any length of time is one, we actually need it to make our algorithms better, but more importantly, there is a legitimate case of the government, or particularly the police function or so forth, wanting, with a Federal subpoena and so forth being able to get access to that information."
-- Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, All Things Considered, NPR interview between 5:40 and 6:40, October 2, 2009.

So much for "don't be evil"—that sounds pretty fucking evil to me. Government tends toward evil, and pandering to them is also evil. That explains why they kissed the Chinese government's ass with regard to censoring political dissidents.

Apple may not be very different, but at least they make no pretense of being "good". There's nothing like someone raping you and telling you that it's for your own good.

My comments posted to the blog anonymously:

I have a problem with financial disincentives: where the money comes from. Law enforcement is paid for via taxes, so not only are we paying a higher bill to the phone company (TPC) on the front-end for the infrastructure, we're also funding federal, state, and local governments to pay for wiretaps, etc., on the back-end. Business is business for TPC, but the "law" is being used to strong-arm the consumer into paying for the privilege of being spied upon.