With regular breeches of security to websites, as well as blatant disregard of privacy rights by internet companies it has many wondering whether privacy may indeed be a thing of the past. Yesterday Google was reported, according to Wired.com, as having "intentionally circumvented the default privacy settings of Apple’s Safari browser, using a backdoor to set cookies on browsers set to reject them, in the latest privacy debacle for the search and advertising giant." The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the incident. Three other companies were also found doing the same thing, Vibrant Media Inc., WPP PLC's Media Innovation Group LLC and Gannett Co.'s PointRoll Inc. It all begs the question what were these companies thinking and furthermore why are these practices not illegal? Even the government these days are up to their dirty trick trying to circumvent the bill of rights, arguing that technology is not protected by the Fifth Amendment even. In a recent case in Colorado defendant Ramona Fricuso was not permitted to use the fifth amendment to bar prosecutors from attempting to have the files on her computer decrypted, when the team failed Ms. Fricuso was ordered to type in the password which she had forgotten. For this she was held in contempt. i'm not going to sit here and recite the Fifth Amendment, it's linked above actually, but it clearly states that we do not have to say or do anything that might incriminate ourselves or allude that we had committed a crime. It is my opinion that we as internet users push back against these tyrannies being imposed upon us. Yes, the internet maybe a new medium but that does not give companies or governments, specifically the American government, the right to strip or violate freedoms that have been granted to us long before they came around. Furthermore, who the hell does Google think it is? Being one of the largest companies on the internet does not give them the right to violate the privacy of users, especially users who had set their browsers to not accept cookies or tracking of any kind. Those people obviously did so for a reason. In Google's ever evolving quest for continuing profits they must have forgotten their motto "Don't be evil!"
