[LINK] EPIC re Google and NSA, and Google Books

Mon Feb 15 11:07:33 AEDT 2010

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                          E P I C   A l e r t
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Volume 17.03                                          February 12, 2010
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<http://www.epic.org/alert/epic_alert_1703.html>http://www.epic.org/alert/epic_alert_1703.html

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[2] EPIC Seeks Records on Google/NSA Relationship
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On February 4, 2010 EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request with the National Security Agency, seeking records regarding
the relationship between Google and the NSA. The press reported that
Google and the NSA have entered into a partnership following a recent
hacker attack on Google originating from China. On January 12, 2010,
Google announced that hackers originating from China had attacked
Google's corporate infrastructure. According to Google, evidence
suggested "that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail
accounts of Chinese human rights activists."

On February 4, 2010, the Washington Post reported that Google and the
NSA had entered into a "partnership" to help analyze the attack by
permitting them to "share critical information." The NSA and Google
have sought to maintain the secrecy of the agreement, as the Post
reported that "Google and the NSA declined to comment on the
partnership." But, the NSA acknowledged that it has worked with the
private sector on cybersecurity in the past: NSA spokeswoman Judi Emmel
stated that "as part of its information-assurance mission, NSA works
with a broad range of commercial partners and research associates to
ensure the availability of secure tailored solutions for Department of
Defense and national security systems customers."

In order to discover the details of the Google/NSA relationship, EPIC
filed a request under FOIA  for any records pertaining to the
agreement. EPIC believes that the public has a significant interest in
learning the details of the agreement in order to make informed
decisions regarding their online privacy and security.

The EPIC FOIA request also seeks NSA communications with Google
regarding Google's failure to encrypt Gmail and cloud computing
services. On January 13, 2010 Google set as a default the encryption of
all traffic to and from its Gmail email servers. Complete traffic
encryption was available to users beginning in 2008, but was not
enabled by default. Due in part to the lack of encryption in Google's
cloud computing services, EPIC filed a complaint before the Federal
Trade Commission on March 17, 2009, petitioning the Commission to
investigate the adequacy of Google's privacy and security safeguards.
Despite the cybersecurity risk to the millions of Gmail users, Google
did not enable complete encryption until after the hacker attack
originating from China. The timing of Google's decision to enable
traffic encryption suggests a connection between that decision and
Google's relationship with the NSA regarding the hacker attacks. EPIC
also recently filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency and
the National Security Council, seeking a key document governing
national cybersecurity policy.

EPIC, FOIA Request to NSA Concerning NSA/Google Relationship (Feb. 4,
2010)

<http://epic.org/privacy/nsa/foia/NSA-Google_FOIA_Request.pdf>http://epic.org/privacy/nsa/foia/NSA-Google_FOIA_Request.pdf

EPIC: FOIA Litigation
       <http://epic.org/privacy/litigation/>http://epic.org/privacy/litigation/

EPIC: Cloud Computing Privacy

<http://epic.org/privacy/cloudcomputing/>http://epic.org/privacy/cloudcomputing/

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Revised Google Books Settlement Fails to Fix Key Problems

Even after revisions, the Google Books Settlement still fails to
address antitrust, privacy, and copyright concerns, according the the
US Justice Department, privacy advocates, and academic authors.On
February 4, the Justice Department filed a brief and issued a statement
opposing the revised settlement. The Department said the revisions
still ran afoul of authors' copyrights and did not fix antitrust
problems. EPIC also continues to object to the settlement because it
does not contain adequate privacy protections for readers. On February
4, EPIC informed the court of its intent to appear at the February 18
Fairness Hearing on behalf of users' privacy interests.

Google Books, Proposed Settlement (Revised)
      <http://www.googlebooksettlement.com>http://www.googlebooksettlement.com

Academic Authors', Objections to Revised Settlement

<http://www.epic.org/redirect/021210academicauthobj.html>http://www.epic.org/redirect/021210academicauthobj.html

Justice Department, Brief

<http://thepublicindex.org/docs/amended_settlement/usa.pdf>http://thepublicindex.org/docs/amended_settlement/usa.pdf

Justice Department, Statement (February 4, 2010)

<http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-opa-128.html>http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/February/10-opa-128.html

EPIC: Google Books and Privacy

<http://epic.org/privacy/googlebooks/default.html>http://epic.org/privacy/googlebooks/default.html

EPIC: Google Books Litigation

<http://epic.org/privacy/googlebooks/litigation.html>http://epic.org/privacy/googlebooks/litigation.html

EPIC: Google Books: Policy Without Privacy

<http://epic.org/privacy/googlebooks/policy.html>http://epic.org/privacy/googlebooks/policy.html

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-- 
Roger Clarke                                 http://www.rogerclarke.com/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW
Visiting Professor in Computer Science    Australian National University