Google slams US government requests for data

Google has described the US government's requests as 'nonsensical' and 'cavalier'

Google has issued a stinging rebuke to the US government's legal request for copies of all search terms used, and the URLs they identify, over a two-month period.

The US Department of Justice filed a legal case against the search firm last month after it refused to hand over the data, which the government is seeking to help devise a law that would protect children from internet pornography.

Google's legal response describes the government's request as "so uninformed as to be nonsensical". 

"The very fact that the government is so uninformed about the value of search and URL information, and so dismissive of Google's interest in protecting it, speaks volumes about why the court should protect Google from this compelled disclosure," stated the brief filed by lawyers at legal firm Perkins Coie.

"The government's cavalier attitude undermines any credibility in the assertion it later makes that it can or will protect Google against loss or further disclosure of the information, a promise that is hollow in the context of litigation in any event."

Google received a subpoena for the data from the Department of Justice on 25 August 2005 and has been fighting the case ever since.

MSN and Yahoo have handed over the information but Ask Jeeves, the fourth most popular search site in the US, has not been asked.

Google is fighting the case on three fronts, insisting that the information is useless for the proposed task; that disclosure would reveal trade secrets and lead to loss of business; and that the order would place an undue burden on the company.

"The government says that its requested search queries will assist it to understand 'the search behavior of current web users'," the brief stated.

Google pointed out that there is no way of distinguishing between a human making a search and a software-generated search.

It goes on to explain that, since the case came to light, a Mozilla plug-in has been written and distributed that sends a random pornography inquiry every time Google is used.

On the second point, Google said that the data would reveal how it searches and the number of web servers scanned. Furthermore the Department of Justice's researcher who would see this data actually works for a rival company.

Finally the brief pointed out that Google does not store this kind of information in the format needed, and that to do so would require a significant amount of engineering time that would take employees away from other tasks.

"Even if the government were to pay Google for its engineers' time, executing the searches required by the government's requests would command extended hours of processing time on Google's computers," it stated.

"Running these programs above and beyond the normal demand on Google's computers is likely to cause slowdowns, interference and even interruption of Google's normally efficient flow of operations and service, resulting in lower quality of service to users of Google's search engine and to Google's advertisers."

The hearing on the case will be held on 13 March at the San José District Court.