Global Privacy Alert: Bush collecting global search engine records for 1 week

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/13664856.htm

Google clashes with feds in battle over online search requests
MICHAEL LIEDTKE
Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is rebuffing the Bush administration's demand for a 
peek at what millions of people have been looking up on the Internet's leading 
search engine - a request that underscores the potential for online databases 
to become tools of the government.

Mountain View-based Google has refused to comply with a White House subpoena 
first issued last summer, prompting U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales this 
week to ask a federal judge in San Jose for an order to force a handover of the 
requested records.

The government wants a list all requests entered into Google's search engine 
during an unspecified single week - a breakdown that could conceivably span 
tens of millions of queries. In addition, it seeks 1 million randomly selected 
Web addresses from various Google databases.

In court papers that the San Jose Mercury News reported on after seeing them 
Wednesday, the Bush administration depicts the information as vital in its 
effort to restore online child protection laws that have been struck down by 
the U.S. Supreme Court.

Google competitor Yahoo Inc., which runs the Internet's second-most used search 
engine, confirmed Thursday that it had complied with a similar government 
subpoena.

Although the government says it isn't seeking any data that ties personal 
information to search requests, the subpoena still raises serious privacy 
concerns, experts said, especially considering recent revelations that the 
White House authorized eavesdropping on domestic civilian communications after 
the Sept. 11 attacks without obtaining court approval.

"Search engines now play such an important part in our daily lives that many 
people probably contact Google more often than they do their own mother," said 
Thomas Burke, a San Francisco attorney who has handled several prominent cases 
involving privacy issues.

"Just as most people would be upset if the government wanted to know how much 
you called your mother and what you talked about, they should be upset about 
this, too."

The content of search request sometimes contain information about the person 
making the query.

For instance, it's not unusual for search requests to include names, medical 
information or Social Security information, said Pam Dixon, executive director 
for the World Privacy Forum.

"This is exactly the kind of thing we have been worrying about with search 
engine for some time," Dixon said. "Google should be commended for fighting 
this."

Other search engines already have complied with similar subpoenas issued by the 
Bush administration, according to court documents. The cooperating search 
engines weren't identified.

Yahoo stressed that it didn't reveal any personal information. "We are rigorous 
defenders of our users' privacy," Yahoo spokeswoman Mary Osako said Thursday. 
"In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue."

Microsoft Corp. MSN, the No. 3 search engine, declined to say whether it even 
received a similar subpoena. "MSN works closely with law enforcement officials 
worldwide to assist them when requested," the company said in a statement.

As the Internet's dominant search engine, Google has built up a valuable 
storehouse of information that "makes it a very attractive target for law 
enforcement," said Chris Hoofnagle, senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy 
Information Center.

The Department of Justice argues that Google's cooperation is essential in its 
effort to simulate how people navigate the Web.

In a separate case in Pennsylvania, the Bush administration is trying to prove 
that Internet filters don't do an adequate job of preventing children from 
accessing online pornography and other objectionable destinations.

Obtaining the subpoenaed information from Google "would assist the government 
in its efforts to understand the behavior of current Web users, (and) to 
estimate how often Web users encounter harmful-to-minors material in the course 
of their searches," the Justice Department wrote in a brief filed Wednesday

Google - whose motto when it went public in 2004 was "do no evil" - contends 
that submitting to the subpoena would represent a betrayal to its users, even 
if all personal information is stripped from the search terms sought by the 
government.

"Google's acceding to the request would suggest that it is willing to reveal 
information about those who use its services. This is not a perception that 
Google can accept," company attorney Ashok Ramani wrote in a letter included in 
the government's filing.

Complying with the subpoena also wound threaten to expose some of Google's 
"crown-jewel trade secrets," Ramani wrote. Google is particularly concerned 
that the information could be used to deduce the size of its index and how many 
computers it uses to crunch the requests.

"This information would be highly valuable to competitors or miscreants seeking 
to harm Google's business," Ramani wrote.

Dixon is hoping Google's battle with the government reminds people to be 
careful how they interact with search engines.

"When you are looking at that blank search box, you should remember that what 
you fill can come back to haunt you unless you take precautions," she said.

---

On The Web:

http://www.worldprivacyforum.org

Electronic Privacy Information Center: http://www.epic.org

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