Go Google Yourself, George...

So far, the government's request for search records is being firewalled. This I'm actually surprised about for once...

Google is defying a request by the US government to hand over data revealing what its users are searching for online. The Bush administration wants a list of requests entered into Google's online search engine in an unspecified single week. It also wants 1m randomly selected web addresses from Google's databases.

The White House said the information is part of an effort to protect children from online pornography, and would not violate personal privacy - but the request immediately raised concerns.

Rights groups in the US are already on alert after revelations that the White House authorised phone tapping without court orders. "This is exactly the kind of thing we have been worrying about with search engines for some time," Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum told the Associated Press. "Google should be commended for fighting this."

What is it they want those records for? Oh, just so they can blatantly ignore a rare Supreme Court ruling that blocked yet another attempt at censorship "for the children". They think filtering software doesn't do a good enough job of blocking porn sites, ignoring that this is none of their business anyway.


Interesting side-note: their stock price took a hit over this...