Google Defies Feds

January 20, 2006: US prosecutors are seeking millions of internet search records from Google, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo! to prop up a controversial internet pornography law. Google is the only one of the four companies refusing to comply with the request.

The feds are demanding a random sample of one million internet addresses available through Google’s search engine, as well as a random one million sampling of searches done through Google in a one week period.

Google is “vigorously” resisting the Bush Administrations request for the data, whilst Yahoo! is providing anonymous information only. It is unknown exactly what details Microsoft and AOL will be providing.

Federal prosecutors say that the information is necessary to prove that the law passed in 1998 is better than filtering programs when protecting minors from harmful materials on the Internet.

The information request has raised a number of concerns surrounding invasion of privacy. Both in terms of the US Government requesting the information, and the fact that the search logs exist in the first place to be requested.

Google has been praised by online privacy advocates for fighting the government’s request, however it has at the same time been scolded for the vast repository of search data it has stored including keywords used when searching, sites visited, browser used and perhaps most importantly; the IP address of the searcher.

The law was almost quashed by the supreme court in 2004, and it is still unclear whether it is unconstitutional or not. The case is due to go to trial on October 2, 2006.

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