Google defies US government

2006-01-20 08:54

San Francisco - Internet search giant Google defied a legal challenge from the US justice department on Thursday by vowing to "vigorously" fight a demand to reveal details about online searches.

US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales filed a legal motion in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose on Wednesday to enforce a subpoena requesting Google hand over a week's worth of data on online searches by internet users.

The government says it needs the data to defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in the state of Pennsylvania.

Federal lawyers want the information from Google to back an argument that the law is a more effective tool than software filters in keeping children from getting access to adult-only websites.

The government is seeking the data from Google to help bolster its case after the US Supreme Court overturned a 1998 law that required websites to check the ages of online visitors before granting adults access to online pornography.

The nation's highest court ruled that the law was so broad that it could deny adults legitimate access to such sites.

"Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches," Google associate general counsel Nicole Wong said in a written statement.

"We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously," Wong said.

The original subpoena served on Google asked for the addresses of all websites that could be located by the Mountain View, California, company's vast search engine as of July 31 2005.

The subpoena also demanded the words, terms and symbols from every Google search request from June 1 2005 through July 31 2005, according to court paperwork.

Google got federal officials to whittle down the request, court filings showed.

"If Google loses this, what is to stop the US government from making constant requests for all sorts of things, such as searches on terrorism or any company they are investigating?" asked Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum.

"Google could become the greatest research tool for the government that anyone ever envisioned. I certainly don't blame Google for fighting this," she said.

Court filings indicated "a major search engine" had complied with a similar subpoena from the justice department.

The subpoena is "the first shoe dropping" that online privacy advocates have long feared, said Beth Givens, director of the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, California.

In a written release posted on the internet, search engine Yahoo said it "complied on a limited basis and did not provide any personally identifiable information".

Software titan Microsoft responded to inquiries with a statement that it "works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested" and its policy is to comply with the law in a "timely manner".

"I'm really glad that Google is challenging the government about this request, that is the good news," said Givens.

"The bad news is that Google probably has more information in its data banks than any other search engine. Google may have to give in, but at least they are showing some backbone."

Google stores user information in a single tracking "cookie" that could hold a rich load of data about anything from e-mail, online purchases, addresses, names, searched words, or other terms typed in, Givens said.

Dixon said Google would not be able to filter out personal information from the data demanded by the government.

- AFP