Bookstores like Tattered Cover in Denver and Kramerbooks in Washington, D.C. stood up against government demands for book records. And thanks to their efforts, as well as others, the government has generally failed to force bookstores to turn over reader information without a court-issued warrant — or in some cases, even more than a warrant. Similarly, states across the country have passed public library privacy laws that require a court order before reading information is turned over.
Given this backdrop, we asked Google to promise that it would fight for those same standards to be applied to its Google Book Search product. We want Google to promise that it will demand more than a subpoena (which is written by a lawyer and not approved by a judge) or some other legal process that a judge has not approved before turning over your book records. In essence, we asked Google to tell whoever came to them demanding reader information: “Come back with a warrant.”
Honestly, we thought it would be an easy thing for Google to do.
Unfortunately, Google has refused…..
Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation