Google is giving data to police based on search keywords, court docs show
"Think of the ramifications in the future if everyone who searched something in the privacy of their own home was subject to interviews by federal agents," Spodek said. "Someone could be interested in how people die a certain way or how drug deals are done, and it could be misconstrued or used improperly."The problem is most people don't think like that. Most people think "why do I care, I search google for sourdough recipes and to see what the heck sus means. The chances of me getting in trouble because I did this is really low." And then they read something like this from the same place..."After investigators linked Williams to the arson through the keyword warrant, they sent Google another warrant specifically for his account, finding that he looked up phrases like "where can i buy a .50 custom machine gun," "witness intimidation" and "countries that don't have extradition with the United States."And they'll say "See, see! This works, this should be legal it catches bad people, look at what this guy was doing"Enough people think like that, and there's no pressure to make this practice illegal, no pressure from the public to get laws passed because while some people look at this practice and see their lives being made worse, many people look at this and see themselves being protected from bad guys.