A legal standoff between the US Justice Department and Internet search giant Google has added fuel to an already heated debate over the government's right of access to potentially personal data.
Google's decision to "vigorously" oppose a government subpoena to turn over records on millions of its users' search queries drew applause from privacy and legal watchdogs, although some also questioned the search engine's policy of retaining vast amounts of user data.
"This subpoena is really overreaching and outrageous," said Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology.
"We are glad that Google is resisting and we hope others would in the situation as well," Schwartz said.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also cheered Google's stand in the wake of decisions by rival technology groups Yahoo and Microsoft to comply with similar government subpoenas.
The ACLU contends the government is trying to extricate private information out of Google under the emotional guise of seeking to protect children from pornography.
"A lot of people are swallowing the government's whole line, and that is sad," ACLU representative Emily Whitfield said.
"We are not representing the porn industry. We are representing Web sites with socially valuable material," she said.
The government says it needs the data to defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in Pennsylvania.
The 1998 law, which has been challenged in various courts, imposes tough criminal penalties on individuals whose Web sites carry material deemed harmful to minors.
Despite Google's stand, other firms have met the government's demands, but said that private information was still safeguarded.
"We did comply with their request for data in regards to helping protect children in a way that ensured we also protected the privacy of our customers," Microsoft said in a statement.
"We were able to share aggregated query data [not search results] that did not include any personally identifiable information at their request," it said.
Yahoo cooperated "on a limited basis" with the subpoena but did not hand over "personally identifiable" information," said Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako.
"In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue," Osako said. "We are rigorous defenders of our users' privacy."
Google argued that the subpoena was "unduly burdensome," especially given that the company was not even a party to the litigation in Pennsylvania.
"This issue is one of burden and also of feeling bullied," said Susan Crawford, a cyberlaw expert and assistant professor at Cardozo Law School.
"This is an unbelievably large request for data. There is also a trade secret issue, in that Google might be revealing what they decide to save in particular files," she said.
The Google case comes with the government already under fire from civil rights groups over warrantless domestic wiretaps carried out by the National Security Agency with the approval of President George W. Bush.
Although the data requested from Google would not identify individual users, there are concerns that by acceding to the subpoena, Google would open the door to demands for more personal information in the future.
Danny Sullivan, an Internet consultant and founder of Search Engine Watch, argued that the government was asking for more than it could ever handle.
"The sheer amount of data would be overwhelming," he said.
"Moreover, since the data is divorced from user info, you have no idea what searches are being done by children or not. In the end, you've asked for a lot of data that's not really going to help you estimate anything at all," he said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was