U.S. wants to google ... Google
Demand for data on Web searches may spark fight on privacy rights
By Mike Hughlett, Tribune staff reporter. Staff reporter Jon Van contributed to this story
Published January 20, 2006
Google Inc. is refusing to obey a Justice Department demand that it release information about what people seek when they use the popular search engine, setting up a possible battle with broad implications for Internet privacy rights.
The Justice Department asked a federal court this week to force Google to turn over a trove of information on how people use the Internet. A subpoena, first sought over the summer, seeks activity on Google's search engines for a single week, a request that Google says could lead to identifying millions of people and what they were looking at.
The government, which says its request will not result in identifying individual computer users, wants to use the information to resurrect an online pornography law shot down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. It wants to search Google queries to see how often users inadvertently run across sexual material.
The Internet's rise has raised issues of whether users would be vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping of all kinds, but Google's stand represents the first big public face-off between the world's leading search engine and the government.
It's not a surprise this data is "irresistible to law enforcement," said Chris Hoofnagle, an Internet privacy advocate. "It's a honey pot."
Google said the Justice Department's demand is overreaching. "We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to, and we intend to resist their motion vigorously," Nicole Wong, Google's associate general counsel, said Thursday.
Yahoo, which has the second most popular Internet search engine, acknowledged Thursday it has complied with the government on a "limited basis."
Other Internet search engines also appear to have complied with the request, said Chris Winfield, president of 10e20 LLC, a New York-based search engine marketing firm. "It looks like Google against everyone," he said.
Privacy advocates say the request is troubling.
"Search engines now play such an important part in our daily lives that many people probably contact Google more often than they do their own mother," Thomas Burke, a San Francisco attorney, told The Associated Press. "Just as most people would be upset if the government wanted to know how much you called your mother and what you talked about, they should be upset about this too."
The fight is a big test for Google, whose growing store of personal information has increasingly bred uneasiness, the advocates said.
"We're happy Google is fighting it," said Hoofnagle, senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "This is an opportunity for Google to distinguish itself as a privacy leader, and thus far it has not."
Hoofnagle's group and other Internet privacy watchdogs have long been concerned about Google's data retention policies. Essentially, Google keeps just about everything, he said. "It has infinite memory."
Google refused to comply with a subpoena last year, the Justice Department revealed in federal court filings in San Jose, Calif., this week. The subpoena included requests for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from a one-week period.
"This is an extraordinarily broad discovery request," said Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, another privacy advocacy group, agreed. "We think this is really an over-the-top request."
Yahoo "did not provide personal information in response to the Department of Justice's subpoena," said spokeswoman Mary Osako. "In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue."
Microsoft Corp.'s MSN search engine did not elaborate on whether it received a similar subpoena. But MSN said it "works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested."
The Justice Department claims it needs the search engine data to prove the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act. In a brief filed with the court Wednesday, first reported by the San Jose Mercury News, the agency said the Google information "would assist the government in its efforts to understand the behavior of current Web users."
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, barred enforcement of the child protection act, saying it sacrificed the free speech rights of adults.
The 1998 law would slap a $50,000 fine and a 6-month prison sentence on commercial Web site operators who posted "patently offensive" photos or descriptions available to minors.
The court basically said it's up to parents to keep their kids away from Internet pornography, including through software that filters out obscenities.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said filters are a more effective method anyway of keeping minors from pornography. Plus, he noted that since more than 40 percent of the offending sites were overseas, a law aimed at U.S. sex sites wouldn't adequately protect American kids.
Still, the Supreme Court didn't kill the law, kicking it back to a federal court in Pennsylvania. A trial there is supposed to determine if software filters are indeed more effective than statutory restrictions.
The Justice Department subpoenaed Google and other search engines to prove its case that a tough law trumps filters.
By corralling Google's data, the government believes it can "estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches," the court filing said.
The government is probably trying to show that even non-pornographic searches end up extracting racy material, and therefore filters aren't effective, said Michael Overing, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California and a lawyer specializing in Internet and free speech issues.
The public revelation of the Justice Department's request is a rarity for Google. The Mountain View, Calif., firm has traditionally been mum on law enforcement inquiries for its data, analysts say.
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mhughlett@tribune.com
Demand for data on Web searches may spark fight on privacy rights
By Mike Hughlett, Tribune staff reporter. Staff reporter Jon Van contributed to this story
Published January 20, 2006
Google Inc. is refusing to obey a Justice Department demand that it release information about what people seek when they use the popular search engine, setting up a possible battle with broad implications for Internet privacy rights.
The Justice Department asked a federal court this week to force Google to turn over a trove of information on how people use the Internet. A subpoena, first sought over the summer, seeks activity on Google's search engines for a single week, a request that Google says could lead to identifying millions of people and what they were looking at.
The government, which says its request will not result in identifying individual computer users, wants to use the information to resurrect an online pornography law shot down last year by the U.S. Supreme Court. It wants to search Google queries to see how often users inadvertently run across sexual material.
The Internet's rise has raised issues of whether users would be vulnerable to electronic eavesdropping of all kinds, but Google's stand represents the first big public face-off between the world's leading search engine and the government.
It's not a surprise this data is "irresistible to law enforcement," said Chris Hoofnagle, an Internet privacy advocate. "It's a honey pot."
Google said the Justice Department's demand is overreaching. "We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to, and we intend to resist their motion vigorously," Nicole Wong, Google's associate general counsel, said Thursday.
Yahoo, which has the second most popular Internet search engine, acknowledged Thursday it has complied with the government on a "limited basis."
Other Internet search engines also appear to have complied with the request, said Chris Winfield, president of 10e20 LLC, a New York-based search engine marketing firm. "It looks like Google against everyone," he said.
Privacy advocates say the request is troubling.
"Search engines now play such an important part in our daily lives that many people probably contact Google more often than they do their own mother," Thomas Burke, a San Francisco attorney, told The Associated Press. "Just as most people would be upset if the government wanted to know how much you called your mother and what you talked about, they should be upset about this too."
The fight is a big test for Google, whose growing store of personal information has increasingly bred uneasiness, the advocates said.
"We're happy Google is fighting it," said Hoofnagle, senior counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center. "This is an opportunity for Google to distinguish itself as a privacy leader, and thus far it has not."
Hoofnagle's group and other Internet privacy watchdogs have long been concerned about Google's data retention policies. Essentially, Google keeps just about everything, he said. "It has infinite memory."
Google refused to comply with a subpoena last year, the Justice Department revealed in federal court filings in San Jose, Calif., this week. The subpoena included requests for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from a one-week period.
"This is an extraordinarily broad discovery request," said Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Ari Schwartz, deputy director of the Center for Democracy and Technology, another privacy advocacy group, agreed. "We think this is really an over-the-top request."
Yahoo "did not provide personal information in response to the Department of Justice's subpoena," said spokeswoman Mary Osako. "In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue."
Microsoft Corp.'s MSN search engine did not elaborate on whether it received a similar subpoena. But MSN said it "works closely with law enforcement officials worldwide to assist them when requested."
The Justice Department claims it needs the search engine data to prove the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act. In a brief filed with the court Wednesday, first reported by the San Jose Mercury News, the agency said the Google information "would assist the government in its efforts to understand the behavior of current Web users."
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, barred enforcement of the child protection act, saying it sacrificed the free speech rights of adults.
The 1998 law would slap a $50,000 fine and a 6-month prison sentence on commercial Web site operators who posted "patently offensive" photos or descriptions available to minors.
The court basically said it's up to parents to keep their kids away from Internet pornography, including through software that filters out obscenities.
Justice Anthony Kennedy said filters are a more effective method anyway of keeping minors from pornography. Plus, he noted that since more than 40 percent of the offending sites were overseas, a law aimed at U.S. sex sites wouldn't adequately protect American kids.
Still, the Supreme Court didn't kill the law, kicking it back to a federal court in Pennsylvania. A trial there is supposed to determine if software filters are indeed more effective than statutory restrictions.
The Justice Department subpoenaed Google and other search engines to prove its case that a tough law trumps filters.
By corralling Google's data, the government believes it can "estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course of their searches," the court filing said.
The government is probably trying to show that even non-pornographic searches end up extracting racy material, and therefore filters aren't effective, said Michael Overing, an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California and a lawyer specializing in Internet and free speech issues.
The public revelation of the Justice Department's request is a rarity for Google. The Mountain View, Calif., firm has traditionally been mum on law enforcement inquiries for its data, analysts say.
----------
mhughlett@tribune.com
