Google has refused to comply with a US government subpoena for information about how people use its search engine, opening one of the first legal battles over whether law enforcement agencies should have access to the increasingly far-reaching data held by search engine companies. The US government wants the information to help them defend a child pornorgraphy law that the supreme court has struck down.
Federal prosecutors have asked Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL to turn over two types of data: logs showing search terms used by people, and a list of Web sites indexed by the companies' search engines.
And it seems as though Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have complied. Even though Yahoo and AOL have been quick to comment that they have not provided information that could reveal any users identities.
Google is refusing to provide the data and as a result has thrown the issue open to public debate and the lawyers. For no doubt there will now be considerable wranglings over internet search privacy and internet privacy in general.
And this is a critical debate given the increasing trend toward internet services where users worldwide will see most of their private information stored in secure servers across the globe. And the likes of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL have the most to gain from us trusting them with more and more of our information.
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