Boost for Google in internet privacy case (Guardian)

[mogster]

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Thursday March 16, 2006
The Guardian

Privacy campaigners in the US hailed a victory of sorts for internet search engine Google yesterday after a court case focusing on demands from the Bush administration for access to its data appeared to swing in Google's favour.
The White House had served a subpoena on several web search giants demanding data on billions of search requests and website addresses as part of its defence of an online pornography law.

But a US district judge in San Jose, California, indicated repeatedly on Tuesday that he shared Google's concerns about privacy, and he did not want to create the impression government could keep track of individuals searching the internet.

Although Judge James Ware said he would probably ask the search engine to turn over some of its records, it is highly unlikely the Bush administration will see more than a sliver of Google's vast data trove.
"The judge is clearly quite sensitive to the privacy issues that are raised by this," said Barton Carter, a communications and law tutor at Boston University, adding that it seemed the judge would give the government much less than it wanted.

More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1731940,00.html
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Google's vast data trove - that's a very proper term ;-)