A federal judge has ordered that Google must hand over
50,000 web addresses used by its customers to the US government,
but the judge has refused the government’s request for inputted
search criteria on privacy grounds.
Google had refused to hand over any random and anonymous search
data to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), which wanted the
records to help support legislation designed to prevent access to
online pornography among minors.
The judge said privacy considerations had led him to deny part
of the DoJ’s request. The ruling had been expected as the judge
hinted before his decision that he was aware that internet users
may be wary of having their search criteria tracked by the
government.
The US government wanted the search data to demonstrate how easy
it is for minors to stumble across porn sites, despite the
availability of filtering software.
AOL, Yahoo and MSN had already handed over customer data when
Google decided to fight the request on privacy and business
grounds.