I actually disagree. Answering the question requires searching through each and every person's Google searches. So it's the equivalent of going door-to-door and searching every house for the one with the item.
The government is not getting access to (nor asking for) all queries. The government is getting access to information identifying who searched for a term. Google's query may include all search terms but Google obviously already has that data anyways.
This is equivalent to asking FedEx who in a given city was shipped something from a specific address. Sure when FedEx does a search it may technically search over all shipments from any address, but the government isn't getting access to that information. Hardly equivalent to door-to-door searches of every house.
> This is equivalent to asking FedEx who in a given city was shipped something from a specific address.
It is neither equivalent to nor even really analogous to it. It's more like asking a retailer that keeps such records for a list of every purchaser of a specific product.
Which, just to be clear, is something law enforcement will do in some circumstances already.
Agreed that's a much better analogy. In this case the "retailer" already maintains such records. The government isn't even asking for the list of all purchases by all individuals, just the name of who purchased a particular item.
Sure in the course of getting the answer to that question the retailer may sift through the records of all purchases, but this is data they already have.
This is hardly something to be outraged about. Title implies something much different.
