• Home
• /
• Opinion

Big Brother watching

WITH the US asking Internet giant, Google, and other industry players to present the records of Internet searches, the issue of privacy on the Net has come to centre-stage like never before.

If search engines such as Google, easily the largest, decide to make public millions of such search records, it could endanger personal data of millions of Internet users around the world. At present, most people using the Net hardly think of possible consequences of their harmless search. From everyday routine search for a suitable word to invaluable scientific information, most educated and computer literate people turn to the Net for help.

The US-based Google Inc. has for now rebuffed the administration’s demand, made by way of a subpoena issued last summer, for a peek at what millions of users have been looking up on the Net. However, the firm may not be able to resist the pressure for long if the US authorities bring in tougher legal measures demanding access to confidential and personal records. Which simply means nothing you do on the Net, not even a regulation search, may be safe any more. The authorities have already been monitoring what is called Net chatter and other electronic communication around the world in their bid to prevent potential terror attacks. It appears the more the world becomes wired, the less secure it becomes. So think twice before you Google and visit a site you shouldn’t. Big Brother is watching. Always.