As with any system, it can/could be abused. That said, I firmly believe, perhaps naively so, that ONLY guilty people have concerns. I have always believed that people ARE fundamentally stupid. 99.9% of everything stupid has people doing it.

Traffic jams, people lane swapping cause it.
90% of auto accidents, stupid actions cause them.
Range fires, Stupid people again.
Litter, more stupid people
disaster areas, even MORE stupid people.

People on some level are stupid about many issues. Not every people is stupid about the same issues of course but on a certain plateau, all people are about equally stupid. They just divide the percentages around to their own life styles.

Now here. Google just so happens to be on the side that sees negative connotations. They probably are among the percentage of folks who like thieves feel that everyone steals, or liars who think everyone lies. If someone is searching for something wrong, then by all means wrong things will show up in the database. Trade secrets? like Moguls are using Google to see the price of pork bellies on the wall street stock exchange? Gimme a break.

People NEED big brother mentalities. I do NOT like the concept but I am basically a realist and can envision the need to have it. Every good thing has some stupid people abusing it.

The unshakable truth is, the future will be there when you arrive Fragman. The best that you can hope for is to be there when it arrives. The older I get, the more attuned to the fact of how inconsequential I am in the grand scheme. My only hope is to remain faithful to myself and hope that others continue to view me in the same light.

I know what you are saying and believe me I understand it. I also believe that in some/many cases, the end justifies the means. If a student is searching out legitimate items for a research paper, it will show up as such because there will be no history of mal-intent from that student. I frequent sites (or did when I had DSL) that had pron as a part of its content. I was not there for the naked bodies. I was there for... other questionable content. I would probably be on a list for nakedness, but my visits would undoubtedly be confirmed to the other content I was really after. (to some, just as wrong I grant)

In the end, I am a staunch believer that you yourself will prove your position and that if you need the info on a backpack H-bomb, that it will show that it is a school dissertation project and not a true terrorist one.

I hope that made sense... In the end, read my signature. I believe it with all my heart.

I don't have a huge problem with the US government seeing it if its for something critical to stop a terrorist or something, but if Google were to give in here could China or Equador do the same thing? The USA says they want to maintain control over ICANN, which I believe they should being one of the few countries that protects free speech as much as we do, but if Google gave all the information to US and not to China, Japan, or Iran, the idiots in France would be demanding UN control again. And don't even get me started on that. Hell, in France its illegal to say the word diaper or email.