Google Wins A Major Round
With all of the negative information that I post about Google I could use a bit of a balance. It’s not common that I have something positive to comment on, but here’s a rare opportunity: Google has had a significant win in their court case VS the DoJ.
Google will not have to hand over any user’s search queries to the government. That’s what a federal judge ruled today when he decided to drastically limit a subpoena issued to Google by the Department of Justice. (You can read the entire ruling here and the government’s original subpoena here.)
The government’s original request demanded billions of URLs and two month’s worth of users’ search queries. Google resisted the subpoena, prompting the judge’s order today. In addition to excluding search queries from the subpoena, Judge James Ware also required the government to limit its demand for URLs to 50,000. We will fully comply with the judge’s order.
Well what do you know? Way to go Google. As they are keen to point out in their blog article, this is a significant win that will reach beyond this case. The government desperately needs checks, and their grab for all of this information was way too broad. Had they won this case then that would have spelled disaster for everyone’s privacy.
So though I am typically negative of Google, we do all owe them a thanks for having a spine and standing their ground. Regardless of what their reasons may have been.
Cripes, I almost forgot. Click here to go read their blog post
~Mysk
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