March 16, 2006 | In Technology |
American federal judge, James Ware, has indicated that he plans to force Google to comply with a government subpoena to hand over search data, now that the Department of Justice significantly reduced its demands.
The original request would have required Google to hand over 1 million random web addresses, and a week’s worth of user search queries in part of its efforts to revive a highly controversial internet porn law. Google refused to comply, and the government has now scaled back its request to just 50,000 URLs, and 5,000 random searches.
Although even the scaled back request is unreasonable, and a great imposition for the US government to expect, it does show the fact that the government wants to compromise, and could even be afraid to confront Google head on.
It now appears likely that Google will be forced to hand over the requested information, but their defiance certainly hasn’t been in vain. The world’s largest search engine has sent a very firm message to the government that they will not go down without a fight when it comes to protecting the privacy of internet users.
If Google continues to reinforce this precedent, the government will likely think twice before making even more aggressive requests in the future, including those which may involve personally identifiable user information.
UPDATE: The official ruling is now in, and it turns out that Google will only have to hand over 50,000 random web addresses, and no search queries whatsoever.
This proves that Google’s resistance on this matter has reduced the government to little more than a token victory. It also sets a future precedent for courts to favour internet privacy over government demands.
Google has scored a decisive victory for the internet privacy rights of both individuals and corporations, and should be applauded for this notable feat.
Comment by Jeremy — March 19, 2006 #
[...] This means that every search performed could be saved in a database, along with GPS coordinates and a time stamp. Tempting information indeed for the Department of Justice, and other prying eyes within the government, as well as Google itself. [...]
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