Drudge is apparently outraged but, like Allahpundit, I’m not understanding the big deal here. Google isn’t sharing your personal IP address in connection with the search, just what parts of the country are seeing a extraordinary number of searches relating to the flu.
And it’s not like they’re simply handing it over to Uncle Sam, as it’s available for anyone to view online. Can you tell from that map what individual is searching for flu-related websites? Of course not. But you can see that there are fewer searches in Texas than in, say, Mississippi.
Anyway, how important is stopping the flu early on anyway? I mean, only millions of people could die. I’m thinking that I could live with Google sharing aggregate data in order to stop that.
by Stephan Tawney on Wed, Nov 12, 2008