Google Just Doesn’t Care About Privacy and Human Rights

It is utterly infuriating to see someone say that they will do this and that and on the first occasion see them do the opposite by their own free will and not pushed by anyone or anything. Google is the culprit in this case as it handed over a blogger’s IP to the Israeli authorities, and mark my words, without being legally required to do so but voluntarily.

The blogger was involved in a defamation case against three members of the Shaarei Tikva council that he instrumented with photos and posted everything on his personal "Blogger" account homepage. The accusations were that the three in question took bribes, pretended to be disabled to gain tax advantages and that the councilmen had ties to the local organized crime gangs. And here comes the good part: despite being asked by the three councilmen to order for Google to provide the bloggers’s IP address, the court did not comply with the request.

What came after is seemingly out of a bad mobsters movie: Google ratted the blogger out after giving him 3 days to anonymously answer to the allegations. No pressure there, it’s just everybody being struck at with the blog looking to get you, why would you shy away from answering?

This very much resembles the Yahoo/China case that had a lot of media covering it, with Yahoo giving away to the Chinese authorities the mail messages and the IP of a dissident. The only difference is that Yahoo! was presented with a court order to give that information up while Google did it of its own free will in Israel.

Is this the same company that refused to comply back in 2005 with the US Government requests for information? The same company that prides itself on privacy and its "Do No Evil" mantra? Probably not.

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