Prompt's TechBlog
Google rejects US government demands
20 February 2006
Posted by Dave Wilby
Search engine Google filed a formal rejection this weekend to recent demands from the US government to reveal part of its search records.
The US Department of Justice had requested the release of search records from a week in January from Google and other firms, including Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL, but Google has now rejected the request saying it would violate the privacy of its users, reveal technology secrets to rival search firms, and in any case would not achieve the DoJ's aims.
Filed documents rejected the request stating: "Google users trust that when they enter a search query into a Google search box ... that Google will keep private whatever information users communicate absent a compelling reason." The American Civil Liberties Union also filed court documents supporting Google.
According to the BBC, the DoJ made the request as part of an attempt to show that voluntary regulation is not doing a good enough job of keeping children free of pornographic material that exists online. However Google responded expressing its disbelief in US goverment assertions that the list of search words would help understand user behaviour, saying: "This statement is so uninformed as to be nonsensical."
This very public support for its user community comes at a useful time for Google, which has come under fire of late for perceived weakness in its lack of support for Chinese citizens by permitting an overtly censored version of its service to go live in that country. A court hearing to decide the current row is now scheduled for 13th March.
tags: Google
The US Department of Justice had requested the release of search records from a week in January from Google and other firms, including Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL, but Google has now rejected the request saying it would violate the privacy of its users, reveal technology secrets to rival search firms, and in any case would not achieve the DoJ's aims.
Filed documents rejected the request stating: "Google users trust that when they enter a search query into a Google search box ... that Google will keep private whatever information users communicate absent a compelling reason." The American Civil Liberties Union also filed court documents supporting Google.
According to the BBC, the DoJ made the request as part of an attempt to show that voluntary regulation is not doing a good enough job of keeping children free of pornographic material that exists online. However Google responded expressing its disbelief in US goverment assertions that the list of search words would help understand user behaviour, saying: "This statement is so uninformed as to be nonsensical."
This very public support for its user community comes at a useful time for Google, which has come under fire of late for perceived weakness in its lack of support for Chinese citizens by permitting an overtly censored version of its service to go live in that country. A court hearing to decide the current row is now scheduled for 13th March.
tags: Google
# posted by Dave Wilby at 11:07 AM 
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