Features

The previous KDnuggets Poll was about US Dept. of Justice request from Google for all search strings over a one-week period (without any info on who entered it), to see how often porn shows up in the results (to protect children against it). Google refused, citing privacy concerns.

KDnuggets readers were closely split on child protection vs privacy, but the narrow majority supported Google refusal to hand over the information.

Here is the KDnuggets Poll on Google subpoena: Child protection vs. Privacy.

Jeff Ullman commented:
If the question were whether Google should cooperate with anti-terrorism searches, I would be more sympathetic to the US govt. point of view. Terrorism is a new form of warfare, and we need to respond to it accordingly.

Another reader commented, that if the goal of DOJ is to protect children, then "since most crimes against children are committed within family homes by family members, the most effective kind of surveillance would be to install CCTV in every bedroom." (heavy dose of sarcasm here).

Here is a more recent story on this topic:

Google Defies US Subpoena.

Google has asserted its stance in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, that the Justice Department's demand for data regarding its users' Web searches might undermine public trust in the privacy of its service as also expose the company's closely-guarded secrets.

In its filing in the federal court, Google said that its users trust that when they enter a search query into a Google search box, not only will they receive the most relevant results, but also that Google will keep the communicated information private unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise.

The company said that the government's demand would undermine that trust, unnecessarily burden Google, and do nothing to further the government's case in the underlying action.