David Notik

The United States government asked that leading search engines give over information on what their users search for. It said it wanted this information as part of the Bush administration's appeal over COPPA, the Child Online Privacy Protection Act -- more specifically, to prove that child pornography was indeed a serious problem warranting government regulation.

Yahoo, AOL, and MSN complied. Google, however, resisted. After narrowing its initial request, the government now wants all search queries for an entire week -- quite a lot of data, considering Google processes hundreds of millions of searches a day. And the information would not contain any personally identifiable information. Still, Google is resisting the pressure, saying it will fight the request "vigorously".

Google cited various reasons it would not comply, from the significant resources necessary to complete the request to the fact that it's not a party in the government's case and its request was "overreaching". But what they've really done is throw the case into the spotlight, prompting novel questions about privacy in a connected world.

This is serious stuff. The government itself made this observation in a 1977 report it commissioned on privacy protection:

The real danger is the gradual erosion of individual liberties through the automation, integration, and interconnection of many small, separate record-keeping systems, each of which alone may seem innocuous, even benevolent, and wholly justifiable.

(U.S. Privacy Protection Study Commission, 1977)

I, for one, applaud Google on taking a stand, rather than bowling over like the other leading search engines. They've demonstrated that they have firm principles, and they take our privacy seriously. Consistently, they've shown that they understand some of the challenges facing the Internet, and they're prepared to fight for it (they opened a DC-based office last year).

Google's shares took a big drop this week, partly due to investor worries. Ultimately, though, this fares well for Google and its reputation, given my take above. At least one article I encountered agrees:

Denise Garcia, an analyst at WR Hambrecht & Co., recommended that investors take advantage of any declines in Google's share price to buy the stock.

"We believe the market will react negatively to this news, decreasing Google's share price," Garcia said in a note to clients Friday. "Ultimately, we believe Google's leadership position, resisting compliance while their competitors have bowed to government pressure, will bode well with its user base."

(BusinessWeek)

Here's a good article from MSNBC about why this is good for Google's reputation.

Yea, I know I talk alot about Google, and I'll really explain why in a future post. For now, this news reflects Google's principled approach and strategy with regards to the general Internet, just one of the reasons Google is soundly leading the industry.