News Item: : Microsoft Defends Action In DOJ Search Data Subpoena
(Category: Privacy/Security)
Posted by DrHook
Monday 23 January 2006 - 15:37:00
By Antone Gonsalves
Microsoft Corp. has defended its decision to provide search data to federal prosecutors trying to revive an anti-pornography law ruled unconstitutional, saying it "tried to strike the right balance in a very sensitive matter."
Last Thursday, America Online Inc., Microsoft's MSN, Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. acknowledged that they received subpoenas from the Justice Department, which is trying to revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act that was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. AOL, Microsoft and Yahoo acknowledged handing over search data to the government; Google has refused and intends to fight, saying the Bush administration's requests are too broad.
The day after the disclosure, Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., said in its MSN Search Weblog that its actions were consistent with the "principle statement: privacy of our customers is non-negotiable and something worth fighting to protect," said Ken Moss, general manager of MSN Web Search.
Microsoft and the other companies who handed information over to the Justice Department were criticized by some experts as giving in too easily. In defending itself, Microsoft explained that it provided a random sample of pages from its search index and some aggregated query logs that listed queries and how often they occurred.
The data revealed how frequently some query terms occurred, but could not be used to link queries to an IP address or to look for people who queried for specific terms. An IP address is an identifier for a device attached to the Internet.p>"Absolutely no personal data was involved," Moss said. In providing the data, the company "tried to strike the right balance in a very sensitive matter."
Read the rest at Security Pipeline
This news item is from Liberty and Justice 4 ALL
( http://www.libertyandjustice4all.org/comment.php?comment.news.52 )