Yahoo, MS: No personal data surrendered

UPI | January 24 2006

Yahoo and Microsoft say they did not turn over any private information to the government when they complied with a subpoena.

Google has refused to comply with the demand to supply six months of search data. The Justice Department is seeking the information in an effort to revive the Child Online Protection Act, which was overturned two years ago by the Supreme Court, by determining whether filtering software does the job of keeping children away from hardcore porn sites.

Both Microsoft and Yahoo say that they provided data that contained nothing that would allow the government to identify specific users of their search engines, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

While Google's refusal to comply with the subpoena is based on claims of shielding proprietary information, privacy is clearly an issue.

"Google's acceding to the request would suggest it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services," Ashok Ramani, a lawyer representing Google, said in a letter to the Justice Department. "This is not a perception that Google can accept."

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