Google Required To Produce Documents to US DOJ

E-TIPS® recently reported (Vol 4, No 15, February 1, 2006) that the US Department of Justice (DOJ), in an effort to collect data to defend the Child Online Protection Act, had filed a motion to compel Google Inc (Google) to turn over information on millions of its users' search queries. The government had originally requested from Google a week's worth of search queries and a random sample of one million web sites. During a Court hearing on March 14, 2006, the DOJ reduced its request to 5000 queries and 50,000 web sites, and Federal District Court Judge James Ware said that the narrower request for data would be less of a burden on Google and indicated that he intended to grant at least part of the request. On March 17th, in a 21-page ruling, Judge Ware denied the DOJ's request to order Google to hand over a sample its users' search queries. However, he did require Google to produce a random sample of its indexed web sites. "The court grants the government's motion to compel only as to the sample of 50,000 URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) from Google's search index," and, "To the extent the motion seeks an order compelling Google to disclose search queries of its users, the motion is denied." The decision outlined the need to weigh "three vital interests": the national interest, the interest of Google to protect its confidential business information, and the privacy considerations of the individual Google users. For news reports, visit: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y1E423FDC; and http://makeashorterlink.com/?C3F464FDC For the full text of the decision, see: http://www.google.com/press/images/ruling_20060317.pdf Summaries by: Clare McCurley