Google’s new tool may give power to citizens

Google’s new tool, the Government requests tool, shows how often governments around the world request user information from Google. This is a change in perspective: we usually just focus on the right of citizens to request information of a government through Freedom of Information Act requests. But citizens also have the right to know what information requests governments are making.

As the ACLU blog notes, even with the new tool, some information is still unavailable. The numbers available through the tool don’t tell the whole story:

First, Google’s tool only tracks requests that are received as part of an official criminal investigation — which would exclude, for example, the infamous DOJ subpoena asking for millions of users’ search queries, something that was not part of an official criminal investigation. Second, Google’s tool only counts the number of requests it receives, not the number of user records that were requested. So that single DOJ subpoena seeking millions of records would only counts as a single request! Finally, Google is barred by law from disclosing the number of requests it receives pursuant to National Security Letters, although we know that upwards of 50,000 of these secret government requests are issued every year. All told, the requests that show up in Google’s tool are just the tip of the iceberg.

The National Security Letters, or NSLs, allow the FBI to compel internet service providers, libraries, banks, and credit reporting companies to turn over sensitive information about their patrons. The government can then compile vast dossiers on innocent people. Before an ACLU lawsuit (Doe v. Holder), the FBI had the power to prohibit NSL recipients from telling anyone that the government has secretly requested customer Internet records at all.

It’s interesting to note the vast discrepancy in power between the government and every other actor in this story. The government can request private, sensitive information about any citizen, and then compel the source of the information to stay silent about the request. The information will most likely be granted. On the other hand, citizens and journalists may or not get the information they request, with or without the help of governments. The ACLU calls the tool a window into government surveillance.

The Google Government requests tool may only be a window, but it may also be a first step to a more open government in an area not normally focused on. Citizens should have the opportunity for having as much information on their side as governments do, and this tool is the first step towards addressing goal.

What do you think? Is this an exciting path towards the transparency we want? We want to hear your views on Google’s new tool.

ACLU to Denver mayor: Open up on DNC details

Don’t you love those old “knock knock” jokes? My new favorite goes something like this:

Knock. Knock.
Who’s there?
It’s the ACLU. Open up, or we’ll sue you for the fourth time.

Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper apparently hasn’t gotten the joke yet, as the ACLU continues to sue the city over a lack of transparency regarding details of the DNC 2008 convention.

From the Denver Post:

It is Hickenlooper — himself a longtime contributor to the ACLU — who time and again has touted his record as a civil-rights advocate and champion of government transparency.

Yet his city won’t say what it’s buying with $50 million in convention security money. And it wouldn’t, until sued, release information as basic as the policies of its jail.

Here’s news to you, Mr. Mayor: You’re not the only one who’s disappointed, sorely.

“There’s a big secrecy thing surrounding this convention,” says ACLU of Colorado legal director Mark Silverstein. “We disagree about whether the city so far has lived up to its commitments about civil-liberties concerns.”

The group has sued the city three times in two months and has no plans of backing down, regardless of Hickenlooper’s bruised feelings.

In fact, City Hall soon should expect further lawsuits, this time filed by four ACLU clients whom the city wrongly jailed for up to three weeks because of mistaken identity. The city has declined to take responsibility for the screw-ups, and court cases may be the only way to prompt new jail policies in time for what likely will be intensely publicized arrests during the convention.

Mayor Hickenlooper, please do taxpayers everywhere a favor and open up. If you have nothing to hide, no one gets hurt, plus the ACLU will stop knocking at your door… for a little while.