Yahoo: Would you work for a "police informant" for the Chinese government?

From the London based The Independent:

CHINA

Published state secrets

Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison after "illegally providing state secrets to foreign entities".

His crime was to have e-mailed details of the Chinese government's plans to handle news coverage of the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in 2004. Yahoo! provided crucial information in the case, linking the message and e-mail account with Shi 's computer. Reporters Without Borders accused Yahoo! of acting as a "police informant".

This kind of behavior will not fly. Yahoo management made a serious error in judgement and so has that of Google, which also hands over such information. Both companies could "launder" their data before they receive it therefore there is nothing to hand over.

Afterall, they always say they are not interested in identifiable information when we use their services, but in aggregated information. There is absolutely no excuse for such behavior.

The revolt will come from within Yahoo and Google's own ranks. It is already happening.