But what Google has done here goes beyond helping repressive foreign
> governments keep information from their own people. It is now
> censoring Americans, who are the primary users of these services, from
> accessing Blogspot who seek to preserve their privacy in reading
> blogs, like they do when they read a newspaper.
By definition an anonymizer prevents the site from knowing where the user is coming from. So how is Blogspot supposed to allow domestic users to access it through an anonymizer, when they can't tell that the user is domestic?
I realize that's not really what you're suggesting. Obviously you think that if they can't restrict the blocking to the repressive countries, they shouldn't block anyone.
But Google is caught between a rock and a hard place. One country is forcing them to block, while traditions in another country promote freedom. It's easy to understand why they went the direction they did; no government is planning on banning them for blocking, but they may be banned by the largest country in the world if they don't.
By blocking access to Americans, Google is not only inteferring with
> American's rights to privacy, it is violating the rights of
> Californians, Google's home state, where the State Constution
> explicitly declares a right of privacy of its citizens.
This is a ridiculous claim. Google isn't interfering with anyone's right to privacy, since they're not forced to post to Blogspot in the first place.
Barry Margolin, snipped-for-privacy@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA
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