The federal government has asked Google to turn over search records to support its case for the law on Child Online Protection Act. Google has refused to provide the data.


The federal government has asked Google to turn over search records to support its case for the law on Child Online Protection Act.

Google has refused to provide data related to search results saying that it will violate principles of privacy of its users. This has resulted in a court battle between Google and the federal government.

Kurt Opsahl, staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that advocates online privacy, said: “If the government wins, it will continue pushing for more information from Google, and so will private parties. People could be deterred from seeking out information that that they need because of the fear of Big Brother looking over their shoulder”. [source]

The government points out that other search engines have supplied the data and hence Google should also follow suit. Yahoo, MSN and AOL have been asked to submit data related to search queries and they have given it to the government.

“Google argues that the demand is overly broad, costly and could reveal trade secrets. Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, added in a statement that after lengthy discussions with the Justice Department to resolve the issue, “we intend to resist their motion vigorously”. [source]

Earlier, the supreme Court had turned down the argument of federal government that a law is needed to protect children from accessing materials not suited for them. The supreme court did not accept Google Search Terms as evidence to prove the need for a Child Online Protection Act. But the supreme court gave another chance for the federal government to prove its point.

“However, it appears the government’s lawyers have figured out that superficial evidence from Google isn’t enough — so they might as well get a lot more detailed info, in the form of one whole week’s worth of search results”. [source]

 

 

 

 

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