difenbaker
01-19-2006, 11:59 PM
Feds seek Google records in porn probe
Thursday, January 19, 2006; Posted: 10:53 a.m. EST (15:53 GMT)
SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/TECH/internet/01/19/google.recrods.ap/story.google.generic.jpg
Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.
Privacy advocates have been increasingly scrutinizing Google's practices as the company expands its offerings to include e-mail, driving directions, photo-sharing, instant messaging and Web journals.
Although Google pledges to protect personal information, the company's privacy policy says it complies with legal and government requests. Google also has no stated guidelines on how long it keeps data, leading critics to warn that retention is potentially forever given cheap storage costs.
The government contends it needs the data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches as part of an effort to revive an Internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/01/19/google.recrods.ap/index.html
.... if you were Google, will you give in to the what the feds want?
cheers!
Thursday, January 19, 2006; Posted: 10:53 a.m. EST (15:53 GMT)
SAN JOSE, California (AP) -- The Bush administration, seeking to revive an online pornography law struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, has subpoenaed Google Inc. for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine.
http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2006/TECH/internet/01/19/google.recrods.ap/story.google.generic.jpg
Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.
Privacy advocates have been increasingly scrutinizing Google's practices as the company expands its offerings to include e-mail, driving directions, photo-sharing, instant messaging and Web journals.
Although Google pledges to protect personal information, the company's privacy policy says it complies with legal and government requests. Google also has no stated guidelines on how long it keeps data, leading critics to warn that retention is potentially forever given cheap storage costs.
The government contends it needs the data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches as part of an effort to revive an Internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court on free-speech grounds.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/internet/01/19/google.recrods.ap/index.html
.... if you were Google, will you give in to the what the feds want?
cheers!