Google to Buck U.S. on Data Request

[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Kevin J. Delaney kevin.delaney@wsj.com]
Google says it will "vigorously" oppose a Justice Department legal motion filed late Wednesday requiring it to disclose information about consumer Web searches, the latest test of Internet companies' willingness and ability to shield information from government inspection. The standoff steers clear of some of the most hot-button privacy issues, since it involves only anonymous data about Web queries, rather than information that identifies what specific users are searching for. But the development comes amid controversy about government monitoring of Internet and telephone communications on national security grounds, and any private sector cooperation with that. It also follows cases where U.S. Internet companies have either turned over personal data about a user to Chinese authorities or cut off an individual's Web site, either in acknowledged or apparent cooperation with the Chinese government. Google's stance contrasts with that of some of its Internet rivals. A Justice Department spokesman said Yahoo, Microsoft's M0SN unit and America Online unit were also subpoenaed in late August in the case and have complied with requests for search data. Some privacy advocates say Google should retain less data about users, and for shorter periods, in order to reduce the risk of privacy infringement by the government or others. "The broader question is why is Google keeping so much information at all," said Kevin Bankston, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based Internet civil-liberties group. "If you are a heavy user of Google, that is the closest thing to a printout of the contents of your brain that modern technology has yet devised."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113768643206350928.html?mod=todays_us_page_one
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* U.S. Obtains Internet Users' Search Records
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-fi-google20jan20,0,5184597.story?coll=la-headlines-frontpage
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