Google refuses White House search request

[Potato]

Simon Jeffery and agencies
Friday January 20, 2006


Google (http://www.google.com) is resisting a White House subpoena to hand over the records of the searches internet users are asking it to perform, it has emerged.

The request was first made last summer, but when California-based Google refused to comply, the US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, lodged papers with a federal judge in San Jose to enforce the order.

The White House argues that a list of all requests entered into its search engine over a single week - which could span tens of millions of queries - will help it build up a profile of internet use it needs to defend an online pornography law.

It also wants a million randomly selected addresses from the index of websites that Google searches.

Read More Here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1691273,00.html)

[boogiedan]

all i have to say is
fair play 2 google

[-0-BACKLASH-0-]

ughs. the things this administration are doing make me sicker every day. :|

[DigitalJunkie]

This kind of mindless blind searches, doesn't help catching those real criminals! It just serve to slowing take freedom away. Bush admn. is fighting for freedom they said, bunch of Liars!!!

[lifehacker]

Kudos to Google for resisting White House pressure...

[skankito]

They just want the data to help build a case for the law they're trying to pass. Yes, kudos to Google for not just giving in to the government. Its just another case of the government trying to stick their nose where it doesn't belong without taking the appropriate actions to get there.

[black_magiic]

Hopefully google doesnt cave.

[nukehella]

This kind of mindless blind searches, doesn't help catching those real criminals! It just serve to slowing take freedom away. Bush admn. is fighting for freedom they said, bunch of Liars!!!

When the people in charge are attacking entire countries and getting away with it why should they concern themselves with the rights of individuals?

[axlman]

Track what I search for rather if it's on GOOGLE, or some other search engine? Invade my rights? Screw Off BUSH!!!!

[CrashPeer44]

A. i hope Bush Dies and is killed
B. WTF is wrong with porn!?!?!?!
C. Thats a lie they want to see what we are searching to truely go after those *TERRORISTS* (that really I thin don't excist)


setttupppp

[Burd]

Law Enforcement has got to get itself back into the real world and stop worrying about the internet. There is a really simplistic line of thinking going on here: that if we can tell what people search for, then we can identify the criminals. Take for example these "sting" efforts that we have in chat rooms. A sociologist doing research in this area compiled statistics that show that at any given time there are probably more law enforcement agents posing as underage kids in these chat rooms than there are actual underage kids and pedofiles. In fact, one man testified that he was aggressively persued in a chat room by a fourteen year old who then turned out to be a law enforcment agent. It seems that all too often crimes are created where--in actuality--there is no crime. The fact is that in a chat room, nobody REALLY knows who anyone REALLY is.

The same goes for searching. You may know what someone searches for, but how do you know his/her reason for searching for it? If I, for example, put in the search term "Lolita," am I looking for sex with underage girls? Or, am I searching for info on Vladimir Nobakov's novel? And, really, is it anybody's business? The fact is that the majority of people who do things on line stop right there. Very few let it spill over into the real world. And, those who do would do so any way...internet or no internet.

Law enforcement needs to concentrate on the real world. How many people are being killed in drive-by shootings or convenience store robberies while valuable law officers are wasting their time posing as little girls in chat rooms? How many REAL rapes take place while detectives are pouring over what I google with the idea that I "might" commit a sex crime in the real world? They're dealing with a cause and effect theory here which is seriously flawed. Stop wasting our resources and invading our privacy and get back in the streets where the real problems are.

[mountain_rage]

I didnt bother reading the full article because I already know of the news. But if they didnt mention it yahoo has given their data, microsoft has allegedly given their data but will not disscuss the issue and other search engine's will not comment. So up to now the only one who has really objected to the data is google. Although to some degree its not that big a deal sine they are not giving and ip adresses or information linking the data to individuals. Its just the keywords and number of times searched.

Theres been alot of disscussion over the need for the data. If they really wanted to test to see how easy it was for someone under the age of 18 of finding porn on the internet all they would have to do is install filters and see for themselves. They have no need for all the statistical information. But alass the Bush administration has probably already tried that the last time they failed.

[DigitalJunkie]

This is just an excuse to cross the line for searches, once they know that big government can get their demands complied without much efforts & reasons. They would do it often, so basically you've a nation under marshal law without having to declared it!

[Christoph]

Google is not evil

[Mels_Smileys45]

Google has a god damn filter, parents will have to do the rest, not the ever luvin world police! Fuckos

[CrashPeer44]

Well heres the best solution to get rid of those Bush troubles!
move out of the USA!

whose with me?
:icon_thum

[Auggie2k]

LOL, if the do win this they will get a big list of people searching for "Presisent Bush Failure". Wonder if THEY will laugh at that?

[Mels_Smileys45]

Well heres the best solution to get rid of those Bush troubles!
move out of the USA!

whose with me?
:icon_thum

If we move they will only come and take over whatever country we move to.

[ROMANTICGUY50]

Simon Jeffery and agencies
Friday January 20, 2006


Google (http://www.google.com) is resisting a White House subpoena to hand over the records of the searches internet users are asking it to perform, it has emerged.

The request was first made last summer, but when California-based Google refused to comply, the US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, lodged papers with a federal judge in San Jose to enforce the order.

The White House argues that a list of all requests entered into its search engine over a single week - which could span tens of millions of queries - will help it build up a profile of internet use it needs to defend an online pornography law.

It also wants a million randomly selected addresses from the index of websites that Google searches.

Read More Here (http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1691273,00.html)

IN ONE SIMPLE STATEMENT GOOD FOR GOOGLE
Bush Is trying to screw our freedoms

[bobhss]

A. i hope Bush Dies and is killed
B. WTF is wrong with porn!?!?!?!
C. Thats a lie they want to see what we are searching to truely go after those *TERRORISTS* (that really I thin don't excist)


A. Wow, I didn't like Clinton, but I wasn't advocating his murder
B. Child porn is bad, PERIOD. Regular porn can screw people up.
C. So terrorists did not fly planes into the World Trade Center? The planes flew themselves? Artificial Intellengence that the government is installing on planes did it.

I agree I don't want companies giving the government (no matter who's running it) anything and everything they ask for, but what are some practical ways to stop child porn? You all complain about it but I didn't read any solutions to the problem. If Bush's solution of "invading our privacy" is so wrong, come up with something better.

[Brycen257]

This should come as no great surprise to anyone that the same Bush adminisration that has been spying on its own citizens and supposedly located the non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is now using the excuse of fighting child porn as a a way of accessing private and personal data it has no lawful right to . The whole thing is yet another attempt by Bush's people to destroy personal rights and freedoms in the USA . I sincerely hope that Google is successful in fighting them , otherwise the USA may be going the way of China in allowing only very limited and government approved means of self expression. The Bush adminstration is very possibly the greatest enemy of freedom that Americans have ever faced and no efforts should be spared to fight this fascist dictator at every possible turn. :icon_puke