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Google Vs Justice Dept. In Porn Case

Posted on: Friday, 20 January 2006, 00:00 CST

Google Inc. is resisting a Bush administration effort to force the company to turn over data on customers' Web searches.

Justice Department lawyers want the California-based company to turn over 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period. In papers filed Wednesday government officials revealed that Google has been fighting the order since last year, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported Thursday.

The Bush administration is seeking 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 Justice Department says it needs the Google data to see how frequently pornography shows up in online searches.

Nicole Wong, an attorney 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, said Wong.

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, the Mercury-News reported.

Source: United Press International

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