Google Defies Government on Privacy Issues

Google, the 800 pound gorilla of search engines, is defying a subpoena by the justice department. The government is demanding that the company turn over one full week of user search data. But Google has said that it will fight the subpoena "vigorously" because the company fears the ramifications to privacy for the twelve million people who use the company’s website every single day.

The Justice Department’s request for search data is actually several month old, and involves companies other than Google. Yahoo has already admitted to having turned the requested records over the government. MSN and AOL also received similar requests. Only Google has refused to comply.

The original request to each company was for a full two months of data. After extensive negotiations, the government request was narrowed down to a single week of search data which was to be scrubbed of personally identifiable information. But Google believes that even this data could be used to identify certain individuals.

The subpoenas were issued in an attempt to by the Bush administration to overturn a Supreme Court ruling on the Child Online Protection Act (COPA). COPA required that all website that feature adult oriented material require a credit card from those wanting to view the material. The theory behind the law was that anyone with a credit card would be at least 18 years of age.

When the law finally came before the Supreme Court, the court ruled that the credit card provision of the law was a restriction on free speech. But rather than ruling that the provision was unconstitutional, the court left the door open. If the Government could show that internet filtering software was less effective at protecting children from pornography than the credit card requirement in COPA, the government might be able to implement the law as it was originally written.

So the Justice Department decided to subpoena the records of search engines to show that search results routinely contained pornographic materials. They may also be attempting to show that internet users routinely search for online pornography.

"The reason they're asking for the data is that they want to be able to say, 'Look, this is how much porn is potentially reached online,'" says Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, an industry newsletter. "But next time, they might come in and ask for data that does contain personal information. That serves as a wake-up call for people." And this is Google’s fear, along with fears of virtually every privacy advocate in the country.

Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (

EFF

) told a reporter for NPR that, "All the search engines have created a honey pot of information about people and what they search for. It's a window into their personalities -- what they want, what they dream about. This information gets stored, and that becomes very tempting."

The government’s subpoena can not be taken lightly by anyone who values privacy. Search engines store vast amounts of data on users, including the sites that they visit, how often they search, what they search for and what they click on. Much of this information can be traced back to the computer from which the search was conducted, even if the user has not provided personal data to the search engine.

While it is not unusual for search engines to provide information requested by a subpoena, the scope of the current government request is significantly larger than most. Subpoenas normally order search engines to provide documentation on the user habits of a particular individual. This subpoena could impact virtually all Google users.

For those who want to insure their privacy, there are several services available that can completely mask their user information. The EFF has been pushing the development of

TOR, which provides complete anonymity to internet users for free but which is agonizingly slow even on a broadband connection. There are also a variety of paid services including FindNot, ipEliminator and Anonomizer. The paid services pricing begins at around $10 per month.

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