DOJ vs. Google

David Schatsky | January 23, 2006, 03:49 PM

These kinds of actions by the government are clearly not good for business. Consumers who are concenred that they may be spied on are likely to reduce the scope and frequency of online activities that may be subject to spying. Jupiter has seen evidence that consumers may trust commercial enterprises with their sensitive personal information more than they trust the government. In a survey in May of last year, for example, we asked consumers which entity they might trust to manage their online identity. Just 4% chose a government agency, while 19% chose a bank. There was no statistically significant difference between the trust accorded the government and that accorded portal Web sites, which were selected by 5% of respondents.

Google's resistance to the DOJ subpoena is great PR, but the other engines' cooperation with the government, along with other recent spying by the government, will probably signal to consumers that their behavior will never be entirely free of government snooping.