21 March 2006
After last week's expectation that the American law courts were going to allow the US Department of Justice (DOJ) access to Google's search query information, the decision has been found in Google's favour by Federal Judge Ware (http://googleblog.blogspot.com / 2006 / 03 / judge-tells-doj-no-on-search-queries.html).
Google was originally subpoenaed to provide the government with two months' worth of user search queries as well as a list of billions of URLs.
After the ruling on Friday, Google will not now have to provide any search query information, and the number of URLs required to be handed over to the American government has been limited significantly.
This is a big win for Google. By showing the American government that it cannot simply take what it wants, in terms of the internet and online search, Google has sent a message to its customers that their privacy is a top priority to the search engine giant.
Now that the American government has been rebutted the world can breathe a little easier knowing that our privacy over the net is safe for a while longer at least.
DOJ told to back off as court ruling goes Google's way
Everything that Google had built, right up until last week, could have been just another tool for the American government to keep an eye on the world. But the American courts themselves have stepped in to protect information Google has collected on users search queries from being too easily accessible to its government.After last week's expectation that the American law courts were going to allow the US Department of Justice (DOJ) access to Google's search query information, the decision has been found in Google's favour by Federal Judge Ware (http://googleblog.blogspot.com / 2006 / 03 / judge-tells-doj-no-on-search-queries.html).
Google was originally subpoenaed to provide the government with two months' worth of user search queries as well as a list of billions of URLs.
After the ruling on Friday, Google will not now have to provide any search query information, and the number of URLs required to be handed over to the American government has been limited significantly.
This is a big win for Google. By showing the American government that it cannot simply take what it wants, in terms of the internet and online search, Google has sent a message to its customers that their privacy is a top priority to the search engine giant.
Now that the American government has been rebutted the world can breathe a little easier knowing that our privacy over the net is safe for a while longer at least.
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