Google resists US government demand for search data

Google has other ideas...

(Filed: 20-01-2006)

Google has rejected a demand from the US government to provide information on what millions of people have been looking up using its internet search engine website.

Last night Google Inc was subpoenaed by the US Justice Department to submit data relating to web searches performed using Google software over the past year. The government requested a list of all terms searched for on the site between June 1 and July 31 last year, plus a random selection of a million websites contained within Google's index. The demand, which underscores the usefulness of online databases in surveillance operations, came as part of a government investigation into online loveography. Google rejected the request, saying it was it is too broad and threatened trade secrets.

In an official statement, Nicole Wong, Google's buttociate general counsel, said: "Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches. "We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously." The government wanted the information in order to help track the effectiveness of the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA, pbutted in 1998 to penalise internet operators who allow children to view loveography. A 2004 US Supreme Court decision, Ashcroft vs ACLU, blocked the government from enforcing the law. The Justice Department is seeking evidence from Google and others as part of an appeal of this injunction.

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