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Thread: User Search Data Made Public

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  1. #6
    Nobody expects the Senior Member Lemur's Avatar
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    Default Re: User Search Data Made Public

    Here in the U.S. Google has certainly tried to keep its data private. And last time I checked, the majority of folks in China who've been turned in for cyber-dissenting have been using Yahoo ...

    A federal judge ruled Friday that Google Inc. must reveal only a limited amount of internal data sought by the Bush administration, rejecting the government's demand that the Internet giant turn over thousands of user search queries described by privacy advocates as highly sensitive.

    ...

    Google's tussle with the Justice Department started last year after the government served the company a subpoena seeking internal search data. The Mountain View company quietly ignored the request, prompting the agency to take the matter public in January by asking a judge to decide.

    For Google, the decision was welcome news. Nicole Wong, Google's associate general counsel, said, "This is a clear victory for our users. The subpoena has been drastically limited, most importantly the order excludes search queries."

    EDIT:

    Hey Don, I know that every internet company doing business in China has to play by certain rules. Google has taken plenty of heat for blocking whichever sites the Chinese request. But the only companies that have been shown to be actively collaborating -- so far -- with turning in dissidents have been Yahoo and Microsoft. (Worth noting that Microsft disputes the Chinese account of events.)

    I know that companies are in business to make money, but it's the height of cynicism to automatically assume that they're all going to behave as cravenly as possible. Some, clearly, are going to knuckle under more quickly and more completely.
    Last edited by Lemur; 08-07-2006 at 16:29.

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