As many of us heard, the Department of Justice had sent a subpoena to Google, now being sued, for the collection of random data from the search engine giant. Google refused stating they would fight it “vigorously” (source). This is awesome.
The DOJ’s position is, “The production of those materials would be of significant assistance to the government’s preparation of its defence of the constitutionality of this important statute” (source).
Where does the DoJ get the right to sue a company for data that does not relate to a specific crime / case? I’d like to know, seriously.
So Google, a tip of the hat to ya, thanks for not being a pansy like the other’s (Yahoo, MSN and AOL).
[...] More people who’ve written about this: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/technology/20google.html http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/01/20/MNGEVGQED31.DTL http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blogs/gelman/archives/003720.shtml http://battellemedia.com/archives/002249.php http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/002534.html http://belowbeltway.blogspot.com/2006/01/getting-news-wrong.html http://www.sharpseo.com/blog/index.php/archives/8 http://hotchic.wordpress.com/2006/01/20/ny-times-google-porn-privacy-article/ http://cypherjf.sscentral.com/2006/01/20/rock-on-google/ http://varun.vk123.com/2006/01/20/yahoo-gave-search-data-to-bush-administration/ http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/01/government_vs_g.html http://blog.braverman.org/PermaLink,guid,67b6c1f5-ff63-4469-b2f7-4621ac8fde60.aspx http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2006/01/do_no_evil_and_1.html [...]
[...] http://cypherjf.sscentral.com/2006/01/21/google-soga-follow-up/ http://cypherjf.sscentral.com/2006/01/20/rock-on-google/ Google called the Bush administration’s request for data on Web searches as “so uninformed as to be nonsensical’’ in papers filed in San Jose federal court Friday, arguing that turning over the information would expose its trade secrets and violate the privacy of its users. [...]