Challenging Google

(Yes, I'm catching up on my newsfeeds tonight...) Interesting scenario. For the record...I really like Google. I hardly every use Yahoo for anything, seldom touch Ask.com at all, and am totally devoted to my gmail (and will be until it stops being free).

Do I feel my privacy rights are violated? I don't do anything worth hiding from any authorities. I don't mind ads in an easy-to-ignore spot in my Inbox, and I kinda like the news headlines and such they offer at the top of the gmail screen now.

I'm just a civil libertarian's dream, aint I?

Then again, there's THIS side of the coin: At first glance it is hard to understand why the US Government's Justice Department wants Google to hand over a week's worth of search data...