The Department of Justice wants to know what you’re searching for on Google. Yes, you — if you’re lucky enough to be in the records that they’re asking for.
Now, of course, the reason for this is not so much because they’re making a list (and checking it twice) on you in particular. The reason given for the the subpoena on Google search records (selected at random, actually) is to help prove the case that folks get to pr0n sites on the Internet by accident, and therefore the government needs to restrict access to such sites.
The move is part of a government effort to revive an Internet child protection law struck down two years ago by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law was meant to punish online pornography sites that make their content accessible to minors. The government contends it needs the Google data to determine how often pornography shows up in online searches.
In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Justice Department lawyers revealed that Google has refused to comply with a subpoena issued last year for the records, which include a request for one million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period.
[…] The government argues that it needs the information as it prepares to once again defend the constitutionality of the Child Online Protection Act in a federal court in Pennsylvania. The law was struck down in 2004 because it was too broad and could prevent adults from accessing legal porn sites.
However, the Supreme Court invited the government to either come up with a less drastic version of the law or go to trial to prove that the statute does not violate the First Amendment and is the only viable way to combat child porn.
As a result, government lawyers said in court papers they are developing a defense of the 1998 law based on the argument that it is far more effective than software filters in protecting children from porn. To back that claim, the government has subpoenaed search engines to develop a factual record of how often Web users encounter online porn and how Web searches turn up material they say is “harmful to minors.”
Google says the information is private, both a trade secret and protected by its own privacy agreement.
So, what have you searched for recently? And would you like the Justice Department to know about it? Even if they’re not going to do anything with that info … this time … yet?
(via BoingBoing)