Google-DOJ Tussle On ABC News

The mainstream media smelled the blood in the water and rushed to cover the now-public battle between the Department of Justice and Google over giving the government access to reams of search data. The Googleplex became the setting for gathering legal storm over Google and its right to protect user privacy and internal trade secrets from the government. Google co-founder Larry Page addressed the privacy issue in speaking to ABC News: "Our company relies on having the trust of our users and using that information for that benefit," said Page. "That's a very strong motivation for us. We're committed to that. If you start to mandate how products are designed, I think that's a really bad path to follow. I think instead we should have laws that protect the privacy of data, for example, from government requests and other kinds of requests." The federal government believes it can get a favorable ruling on the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act, struck down two years ago by the Supreme Court. To bolster its appeal in federal court in Pennsylvania, Department of Justice attorneys contend they need search engine data to demonstrate that adult site publishers do not do enough to keep minors from finding their content. Yahoo, AOL, and MSN have complied with dug in against the subpoenas likely to protect its trade secrets more so than user data the Feds could obtain from Internet service providers anyway. Whatever the reason for the showdown, noted on Sullivan's Search Engine Watch blog. Sullivan reiterated his previous alert about the return of the "broadcast flag" legislation to Congress. Even though many millions more users will be affected if the legislation introduced by Gordon Smith (R-Ore) in the Senate becomes law, the Google story will continue to get the greatest focus from the likes of ABC and other mainstream outlets. That is a story in itself. Email the author to your Bookmarks. Add to document.write("Del.icio.us") | Yahoo! My Web David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.