As a search engineer that has looked at search logs and summaries, I don't think this particular set of information is problematic. Privacy is not an issue here; read your T&C's for the phrase "in aggregate". Since it is date specific, it will reveal how news and events triggered search requests.
This is just Google grandstanding to grab ever more headlines - to keep the egalitarian image while filtering people's messages like Big Brother gone commercial. "Do no evil" looks like Nixon saying "I'm no crook", stamps GUILTY right on the forehead.
This is not a liberal/conservative issue. Perhaps I am an odd one, liberal capitalist pig entreprenuer. More reason to skip the personal labels and get to the issues. Google filters the text people write. They are installing free WiFi in Mountain View and are trying to get into other cities including San Francisco.
Big Brother lurking in WiFi, mobile services
I have built, deployed and sold competing internet-based text-filtering software, and I know exactly what such software is capable of doing. Corporate espionage is a common application.