Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL gave government personal info!
Other firms handed over data on Web searches
By Michael Bazeley and Howard Mintz
Mercury News
Yahoo, Microsoft and America Online all complied with a government request for data on consumers' Web searches, a Justice Department official said Thursday.
Court documents and sources maintain the information did not compromise users' privacy.
But Google has refused to accede to government's demand, and on Wednesday the Bush administration asked a San Jose federal judge to force the Mountain View search company to comply with the subpoena.
A source close to the case told the Mercury News that the government specifically asked that the companies not turn over information that could be traced back to the identities of the companies' users. The source said the government was seeking information that would demonstrate what happens when people search for child pornography online.
``My understanding is we were seeking what keywords are put in and URLs,'' said Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller. ``Nothing personal.''
Yahoo said it provided no personally identifiable information.
``We're rigorous defenders of our users' privacy,'' spokeswoman Mary Osako said. ``In our view, this is not a privacy issue.''
Nonetheless, privacy advocates said the case raises serious questions about who has access to the stores of personal information that are being amassed by Internet companies.
``The fact is that over the last 10 or 20 years our privacy has been at risk by the vast amounts of data that society is putting in third-party hands,'' said Lee Tien, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. ``That's how modern society has been architected.''
In an Oct. 10 letter to the Justice Department, Google attorney Ashok Ramani wrote that, ``Google's acceding to the request would suggest it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services. This is not a perception that Google can accept.''
The Justice Department's request is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.
In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.
The search and advertising giant opposes releasing the information on a variety of grounds, saying it would violate the privacy rights of its users and reveal company trade secrets, according to court documents.
Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, said the company will fight the government's effort ``vigorously.''
``Google is not a party to this lawsuit, and the demand for the information is overreaching,'' Wong said.
The government argues that it needs the information as it prepares to once again defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in Pennsylvania. The law was struck down in 2004 because it was too broad and could prevent adults from accessing legal porn sites.
However, the Supreme Court invited the government to either come up with a less drastic version of the law or go to trial to prove that the statute does not violate the First Amendment and is the only viable way to combat child porn.
As a result, government lawyers said in court papers they are developing a defense of the 1998 law based on the argument that it is far more effective than software filters in protecting children from porn. To back that claim, the government has subpoenaed search engines to develop a factual record of how often Web users encounter online porn and how Web searches turn up material they say is ``harmful to minors.''
``The production of those materials would be of significant assistance to the government's preparation of its defense of the constitutionality of this important statute,'' government lawyers wrote, noting that Google is the largest search engine.
Google has the largest share of U.S. Web searches with 46 percent, according to November 2005 figures from Nielsen//NetRatings. Yahoo is second with 23 percent, and MSN third with 11 percent.
In light of this information - I am no longer supporting the others... only Google.
