A new controversy is raging over the Bush Administration's subpoena of search giants AOL, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo for what they are terming a "random sampling" of the search engine data. This was done not for reasons of National Security, as has been done in the past, but rather in the interests of "children's rights" (translation...that they are looking for child pornographer).
According to the American Civil Liberties Union who is somehow familiar with what is going on, AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo complied, although Yahoo's compliance may have fallen somewhat short of what the Fed's requested. Google, however, has totally refused to comply at all. Today, Microsoft admitted that it had turned data over to the Department of Justice, but no personal information about its users.
As we are still in the middle of this story and much remains to be seen, this story may go on for a while. I just wanted to make you aware of it. If you are interested in reading more, David Berlind of ZDNET has written a blog that explains more about the situation, although you are warned in advance that Mr. Berlind is opposed to the DOJ's position.
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