Google refuses White House search request

**Potato** · January 20th, 2006, 07:19 AM

Simon Jeffery and agencies
Friday January 20, 2006

Google 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

**boogiedan** · January 20th, 2006, 08:20 AM

all i have to say is
fair play 2 google

**-0-BACKLASH-0-** · January 20th, 2006, 08:55 AM

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

**DigitalJunkie** · January 20th, 2006, 10:04 AM

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** · January 20th, 2006, 02:02 PM

Kudos to Google for resisting White House pressure...

**skankito** · January 20th, 2006, 02:46 PM

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** · January 20th, 2006, 02:47 PM

Hopefully google doesnt cave.

**nukehella** · January 20th, 2006, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by 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!!!

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** · January 20th, 2006, 03:51 PM

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

**CrashPeer44** · January 20th, 2006, 07:37 PM

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** · January 20th, 2006, 08:04 PM

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** · January 20th, 2006, 11:38 PM

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** · January 21st, 2006, 01:28 AM

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!