Boost for Google in Internet Privacy Case

Privacy campaigners in the US hailed a victory of sorts for internet search engine Google yesterday after a court case focusing on demands from the Bush administration for access to its data appeared to swing in Google’s favor.

The White House had served a subpoena on several web search giants demanding data on billions of search requests and website addresses as part of its defense of an online pornography law.

But a US district judge in San Jose, California, indicated repeatedly on Tuesday that he shared Google’s concerns about privacy, and he did not want to create the impression government could keep track of individuals searching the internet.

Although Judge James Ware said he would probably ask the search engine to turn over some of its records, it is highly unlikely the Bush administration will see more than a sliver of Google’s vast data trove.

"The judge is clearly quite sensitive to the privacy issues that are raised by this," said Barton Carter, a communications and law tutor at Boston University, adding that it seemed the judge would give the government much less than it wanted.

Judge Ware may rule within days on how much data Google must share. But it was clear yesterday the administration will not be granted a week of search requests, which would have numbered in the billions, and a million web addresses.

Earlier on Tuesday the department of justice said it had scaled back its demand to a random sampling of 5,000 search requests, and 50,000 website addresses contained in the Google archive.

The struggle between Google and the Bush administration, played out at a time of heightened sensitivities after a domestic wiretapping scandal, has been seen as a test case for privacy safeguards in the age of the internet.

"It is the leading search company in the world, and the implications for Google if the government is able to routinely make these requests would have a big impact on business and internet privacy," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre.

The administration demanded the data as part of an unrelated lawsuit involving online pornography. Justice department lawyers argue the search records demonstrate how easy it is for children to circumvent internet filters.

The administration did not ask for information that would identify individual internet users, or their internet protocol addresses. Some search giants including Yahoo!, Microsoft and AOL, complied, handing the administration billions of internet search records.

Google alone has fought the subpoena, arguing the demand violates the privacy of its users, and could expose trade secrets about the operations of its search engine.