Google said no; Yahoo, AOL, MSN yes

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>]

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/19/_doj_search_requests.html

Thursday, January 19, 2006

DoJ search requests: Google said no; Yahoo, AOL, MSN yes. 
Update: Earlier today, I asked a Justice Department spokesperson which
search engines other than Google received requests to provide search
records. The answer: Yahoo, AOL, and MSN were also asked to supply search
records information, and all complied. Google did not, and that is why the
DoJ asked a
<http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/18/doj_demands_user_sea.html> federal
judge on Wednesday to order the company to do so. 

Another fact to consider as you sift through news coverage: Justice is not
requesting this data in the course of a criminal investigation, but in order
to defend its argument that the Child Online
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Online_Protection_Act> Protection Act is
constitutionally sound. 


It seems apparent that Google objected to the request not on privacy
grounds, but because the request was overly broad and burdensome. Privacy
advocates I spoke to today, including attorney Sherwin Siy at EPIC
<http://www.epic.org/> , say while the DoJ's request would not identify
individual users, the scope and nature of this request sets a troubling
precedent. Today, they argue, only search strings and urls; tomorrow,
perhaps, the IP addresses of all users who typed in "Osama Bin Laden." 

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