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EDITORIAL: Google Right to Refuse Request for Search Data

Posted on: Monday, 6 March 2006, 18:00 CST

By Erie Times-News, Pa.

Mar. 5--To help in an investigation of child pornography, the federal Department of Justice wants the Internet search engine Google to turn over 1 million Web addresses. Google has refused, and we don't blame this wildly popular company for a second.

Why? Consider this: You're an Erie resident who, like millions and millions of Americans every day, uses the Google search engine to track down information. So if you type in "New York City hotels" and hit the Google search button, this request -- and your identity -- could end up in a Justice Department file.

That is, it could if a federal court sides with the Bush administration.

Another example: You're a suburban Erie college student doing research for a term paper on the negative effect of pornography on teenagers. You type in "pornography's impact on teens" and hit that Google Search button. Do you or your parents want the Justice Department to get its hands on that request?

What if you also type in "pornography's impact on children"? Perhaps you have just flagged yourself as someone interested in child pornography.

If Americans could trust the federal government always to do the right thing, perhaps the department's request would create less anxiety.

But as the authors of the Bill of Rights knew all too well, Americans cannot always take government at its word. History -- and not distant history -- tells us the federal government isn't immune to abuses.

The Justice Department wants these data for what it believes is an important court case. In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal judge in Philadelphia, who ruled the 1998 federal Child Online Protection Act was probably unconstitutional. The law cannot be enforced until that "probably" goes away. The case remains before the courts.

The law requires adults to use access codes or other ways of registering before they can see "objectionable material" online. Well, the adults who want to see such material don't object to it.

As adults, they can see what they please, and as citizens they have every right to do so. Child pornography is an exception to this rule, because no one can produce it without abusing children.

The argument against the law asks why Americans must be forced to register to do anything legal. And the existence of lists like this creates deep suspicion. It should.

"Your name is on the list"-- they know who you are, they spy on what you do, and if they choose, they can tell your boss or your co-workers or your family.

It can't happen here? Please.

The Justice Department insists it has no intention of tracking down 1 million Web users. Department officials would accept the list without names -- it merely wants to scan search patterns.

That is hardly comforting.

And it's not good enough.

Why should Google be compelled to do the Justice Department's legwork?

And why should Google have to surrender valuable assets to the federal government when criminality isn't in question?

No, the Justice Department must convince a federal court that there is probable cause, a criminal issue in question, before it can order Google to surrender search data.

Other circumstances make us and many Americans leery of the federal government's intentions here.

For instance, if President Bush weren't allowing the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without warrants, perhaps his administration would get the benefit of the doubt.

If the president weren't so stubbornly defiant when anyone questions the legality of these warrantless wiretaps, perhaps his administration's motives wouldn't be challenged.

A court ruling over the Google subpoena should settle the immediate issue of the department's demands. The greater issues remain unresolved.

In the end, the Supreme Court will probably have to decide. Let's hope they decide for Google and for you.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Erie Times-News, Pa.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Erie Times-News

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