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Google Resists U.S. Government Motion to Compel Disclosure of Search Information
Recent reports indicate that Google, a U.S. Internet search company, refused a subpoena first issued by the U.S. Justice Department in August 2005, resulting in a recent motion by the U.S. government to have a federal judge compel Google to comply with the subpoena within 21 days of court approval. The reports explain that the subpoena required Google to turn over aggregate search information including a week of search queries made by millions of its users and a random list of a million web addresses in Google’s index. The subpoena represents an effort to support the U.S.Child Online Protection Act, a 1998 law that imposes criminal penalties on individuals whose websites contained material deemed harmful to minors. Specifically, one report states that the search information sought may assist the government in estimating how much pornography shows up in the Internet searches that children do.
The reports further reveal that although Google’s competitors such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo had complied with similar subpoenas, Google challenged the subpoena it received on the basis that the request is unnecessary, overly broad, would be onerous to comply with, would jeopardize its trade secrets and could expose identifying information about its users. The Justice Department has argued, however, that the information sought does not contain “any additional personal identifying information”, and that trade secrets would be protected under procedures at the trial court.
For additional information, visit:
http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/060119-060352
For a copy of the U.S. Department of Justice submission, visit:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/multimedia/mercurynews/news/GoogleMcElvain.pdf