Google, US showdown looms

2006-01-30 10:24

San Francisco - Google and United States government lawyers asked on Friday for a February courtroom showdown to settle whether the internet search giant should be forced to hand over records of search inquiries.

US district court Judge James Ware was asked for a hearing on February 27 in the Silicon Valley city of San Jose in which the opposing sides could argue their cases, according to his staff.

Ware could opt to rely on written briefs submitted by Google and the government instead of holding the hearing to decide the case, his staff said.

In what has sparked a fiery controversy about the privacy rights of internet users, Google refused to comply last week with a subpoena ordering it to give the US department of justice a week's worth of records about online searches.

Google's stance applauded

The government argued it wants the information as ammunition in a legal fight to revive an overturned 1998 statute making it a crime for websites to allow minors access to adult material online such as pornography.

The Child Online Protection Act was deemed unconstitutionally broad when it was struck down in court about two years ago.

Google's vow to "vigorously" oppose a government subpoena to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries drew applause from privacy and legal watchdogs, although some also questioned the search engine's policy of retaining vast amounts of user data.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was among the privacy advocates that cheered Google's stand in the wake of decisions by rival technology companies Yahoo and Microsoft to comply with similar government subpoenas.

Upset over censorship in China

The Google case comes with the government already under fire from civil rights groups over warrantless domestic wiretaps carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA) with the approval of US President George W Bush.

Although the data requested from Google would not intentionally identify individual users, there are concerns that by acceding to the subpoena, Google would open the door to demands for more personal information in the future.

Within days of being hailed a champion of online rights for standing up to the US government, Google was demonised for slipping into bed with Chinese government censors.

Google agreed to censor websites and content banned by China's propaganda chiefs in order to launch its internet search service there on Wednesday.

- AFP