You are being watched

It has to happen, it happened.
AOL accidentally released the searches performed by it's users on the web. And it pulled them out quickly. It was enough time for people to download that info and mirror it everywhere. And if you look into those searches you'd really get scared.
the identity of the user is not revealed. But each user goes by an ID. I guess they track these users based on browser cookies.
You can understand why the Govt. is requesting this kind of information, there are people out there who doesn't have right intentions.
Most of the big companies submitted their saved searches but Google complains that it is unethical and Govt is crossing the line in doing that. And google has become sort of hero in every ones eyes. Good for us.
But why in the first place should these companies store these search queries with out any warning, with out informing the users. Is it ethical for these companies to store such information? How is it different from recording all your phone conversations? How is it different from taking your photographs or video with out telling you? Is it not Un ethical?? It is a blatant abuse on privacy.

But what is ethical and what is not decided by us. It is decided by the big guys :)