Bush Administration wants Google Porn Search info

[T Pat]

http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebu...124google.html


Internet
Why Google Won't Give In
Chris Kraeuter and Rachel Rosmarin, 01.24.06, 6:00 AM ET


BURLINGAME, CALIF. - Microsoft has a message for consumers who use its search engine: Don't worry, your stuff is safe.

Any information the computer giant hands over as a result of a U.S. Department of Justice subpoena will contain "absolutely no personal data," according to a statement posted on a company blog over the weekend by Ken Moss, general manager of MSN Web Search. "Privacy of our customers is non-negotiable and something worth fighting to protect. We tried to strike the right balance in a very sensitive matter."

Microsoft's (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) assurances follow those from Time Warner's (nyse: TWX - news - people ) America Online and Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), which said much the same thing last week. So why is Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ) the lone holdout?

Perhaps the company really is worried about protecting your privacy. Much more likely: It is worried about protecting itself.

The federal government's requests--which amount to a list of 1 million random Web addresses and a week's worth of search queries--is supposed to help the government build a case that Internet porn is readily accessible to minors, thus creating a need for its once-denied Child Online Protection Act (COPA).

Google's claim that the subpoenas could reveal trade secrets is up for debate. Aitan Goelman, partner with the Washington, D.C.-based law firm of Zuckerman Spaeder, says he doubts the data the government is looking for would reveal how Google executes its searches. But he adds that a clever competitor could sift through the reports and might "be able to get from Point A to Point B and have insight into Google's methodologies."

It's more likely that Google is worried about the results of its search queries and not the technology that powers them. The compromise the Department of Justice has worked out with Google's rivals calls for the search engines to let the government see how often certain search terms were used, but won't let it look up specific Internet Protocol addresses to what individuals looked for.

That alone could prove embarrassing enough for Google. A public disclosure of exactly how much pornography is on the Internet and how often people look for it--the two data points that will result from fulfilling the government's subpoena--could serve to make the Internet look bad. And Google, as its leading search engine, could look the worst.

None of the search engines make a full disclosure of how much porn users are looking at. When America Online lists its most popular searches, for instance, porn references are scrubbed out. But Nielsen/NetRatings says that porn sites attracted 38 million unique viewers in December--or a quarter of all Internet surfers.

Google and its competitors all benefit from porn sites, which help generate search queries and page views. But Google is the only portal company that makes nearly all of its revenue from click-through advertising. Restricting porn and porn advertising--the likely aim of COPA's sponsors--could hurt Google disproportionately.

And filtering in general would also hurt Google more than its competitors. The Google brand is built on the notion that the engine gives users the clearest picture of the Web, without playing favorites. Restricting content in any way could hurt Google's carefully burnished image, its 60% market share for search queries and its share price.

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[kenny]

Thats a damn good article.

I think there is alot of truth there

[DJilla]

Originally Posted by T Pat

That alone could prove embarrassing enough for Google. A public disclosure of exactly how much pornography is on the Internet and how often people look for it--the two data points that will result from fulfilling the government's subpoena--could serve to make the Internet look bad. And Google, as its leading search engine, could look the worst.

Actually, I'm kinda thinking ust the opposite on that. Revealing just how much and widespread porn search is, the politicians will see a message and get the idea to move off and focus on something of a little importance.

Originally Posted by Leon

[these days i'm just happy not to be US citizen

I'm not even going to touch that!|badidea|