Google vs The Government

[gamepin126]

Originally Posted by http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/internetprivacy/2006-01-19-google-search-records_x.htm

Posted 1/19/2006 11:56 AM Updated 1/20/2006 8:49 AM



Google battles government over porn investigation
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY


SAN FRANCISCO ? Google (GOOG) on Thursday rebuffed the Bush administration's attempt in federal court to force it to hand over search-engine data on millions of customers.

The Justice Department asked a federal judge in San Jose on Wednesday for an order to turn over the records as part of the adminstration's efforts to revive a controversial online pornography law. The issue is expected to be resolved by March.

Google has already refused to comply with a subpoena, issued in August, to turn over a mountain of material, including all requests entered into Google's search engine from any one-week period and 1 million randomly selected websites from Google databases.

Rival search engines Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN have cooperated with the government. But Google, the world's largest search engine, opposes releasing the information because it says that doing so would reveal trade secrets and that the information requested is not relevant to the government's case.

"Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and their demand for information overreaches," Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, told USA TODAY. "We intend to resist their motion vigorously."

The government says the information is necessary to determine how often porn shows up in online searches, as part of a push to revive the Child Online Protection Act of 1998. That law would have required adults to register to view objectionable material online, and punished violators with fines up to $50,000 or jail.

A federal court in Philadelphia issued an injunction against the law in 1999, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional on free-speech grounds in 2004. The government is trying to prove in federal court in Philadelphia that the 1998 law is more effective than Internet filters in protecting kids from porn. Obtaining subpoenaed data from Google would help its claim, it said in Wednesday's filing.

The government subpoenaed material from other, unspecified search engines to develop what it calls a record of how often Web searches turn up material it says is "harmful to minors," according to a motion filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose. The filing was first reported Thursday by the San Jose Mercury News.

Yahoo (YHOO), the No. 2 search engine, said it cooperated on a limited basis but did not provide any personal information. "In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue," Yahoo spokesperson Mary Osako said.

Microsoft said it provided general data but did not disclose any private information of its customers.

Even if the government pries data from Google, it isn't likely to find what it wants, search-engine experts say. "One million random Web addresses doesn't tell you how many are porn or how many kids had access," says Danny Sullivan, editor of SearchEngineWatch.com. He and others say filtering software better protects children than the 1998 law.

Privacy advocates worry that the government could gain access to intimate details about consumers. Internet service providers have often resisted providing customer information to law-enforcement officials, for privacy and competitive reasons.

"The government is asking Google ? which has no connection to this online porn law ? to do its dirty work," says Kurt Opsahl, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group. "And even if Google fights back this request, any attorney can write a subpoena and seek its vast records."

Google has no stated guidelines on how long it keeps data, leading critics to warn that retention could be for years because of inexpensive data-storage costs.

[TheSpectator]

Google 1
Goverment 0

Anyway not like it matters because Google will take over the world someday.

(I can't believe I read all of that)

[gamepin126]

I read like half of it, went to the source, and read it all again. Google will pwn the governement. I can't see how they will just ask for info and expect Google to hand it over.

[HARD_ON]

Long story short. The governement wants google's super cool search engine ablilitys and google is like "woh teh fux r u to tel meh wahts to d0?11"
Google will kill the governement.

[gamepin126]

Wrong. Govt. wants a list of what people are searching, through Google, so that they can enforce some ghey Child Online Protection Act.

[707]

Google > Goverment

[hba]

And I pay taxes to those lazy f*cks in Washington, looking to revive some bullsh*t law!

F*ck this country, I'm moving to Canada.

[Mr.Lampy]

lol the goverments probally gonna use google to find info about google O.o

[APOLLO]

google will have its way with the government

[HARD_ON]

Originally Posted by Gamepin126

Wrong. Govt. wants a list of what people are searching, through Google, so that they can enforce some ghey Child Online Protection Act.

Either way, there going to get owned.

[IversonAli3]

Google can afford to spend more money in court than the Federal government, theyll win.

[howardmeis]

I read half of it. I think you can change your settings on google, or maybe that's yahoo.

[Training-Name]

Originally Posted by Hellbound

And I pay taxes to those lazy f*cks in Washington, looking to revive some bullsh*t law!

F*ck this country, I'm moving to Canada.

w00t! I'll pick ya up.

[gamepin126]

I'd completely support google dominating a lot of markets, maybe then we'll get some quality(and free goodies) up in hur. Once they dominate the US courts, we'll get some free open source e-lawyers, w00t.