US government demands Google hand over Internet search data

Google denied requests for the data, while rivals Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL have all handed over records to government lawyers, who claim they need the data to bolster claims that the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) does not violate the Constitution. The act was introduced by the Clinton administration in 1998 under the auspices of protecting children from online pornography. It established criminal penalties for any commercial distribution of material harmful to minors. The legislation was suspended a year later after a successful suit by the American Civil Liberties Union and others claiming the act violated the constitutional right to free speech.

Like all such legislation, its scope was far broader than its supposed target, making it an offense for web sites to post material deemed “harmful to minors,” which, as civil rights campaigners said at the time, could criminalize sites of some art galleries and book stores.

The request for search data is said to be part of an attempt to overturn the decision of the Supreme Court, which in 2004 upheld a lower-court injunction against enforcement of COPA. The Justice Department claims it needs the data in order to show that filtering software is no alternative to COPA, and therefore the suspension of the act should be lifted.

Even if this were the whole story, Google is absolutely correct in refusing to hand over the data, and there is no legal basis for compelling it to do so. As the San Jose Mercury News said in its editorial of January 20, “The request is not an appropriate use of subpoena power. The government wants Google’s data not as evidence in a case, but rather to conduct an experiment which it hopes will show that Internet porn filters are ineffective. In short, the government wants Google to help make its case, using the company as a research arm.”

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http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/goog-j21.shtml