A federal judge has ordered internet search giants Google to hand over some search data, including 50,000 web addresses, to the US government.
The Justice Department had wanted access to search records to help prevent access to online pornography, however Judge James Ware denied a request that Google hand over a list of people's search requests due to "privacy considerations".
The ruling said the request for 50,000 URLs, was relevant for use in a study that the government is undertaking to defend the constitutionality of its child anti-pornography law.
Earlier, the government had reduced its request to just 50,000 web addresses and approximately 5,000 search terms from the potentially billions of addresses that it had initially sought.
The US Government is seeking to defend the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which has been blocked by the Supreme Court because of legal challenges over how it is enforced.
It wants the data from the search engines to prove how easy it is to stumble over porn on the net.
Rival search engines AOL, Yahoo and MSN have already complied with subpoenas in the case. |
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