What will happen is google looses to the government in court?
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 at
6:55 am
If google looses in court, and is forced to turn over the weeks worth of searches, what will happen? Who will get in trouble, will it be the people making the searches or the websites showing up on them?
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Generally speaking, no one will get in trouble if Google turns over the search records. Google really is in a "ethical" standoff with the government, and believes that by not turning over these records, they are protecting the rights and privacy of thier users.
Google's official statement infers that people search for very private information, including punching in things like bank records, social security numbers and the like.
The very nature of the broad request that the government has made, makes google, and many other people, uneasy about what they may do with the records. There is a risk that certain portions of the government may use that information to the user's disadvantage – such as tracking down felons, etc…
In a way, its like the government's use of facial recognition at Superbowl XXXV – a highly controversial move that raised questions about people's fourth ammendment right – which explicitly outlaws "unreasonable searches and seizures".
The fact is that both MSN and Yahoo have already turned over the same type of records to the Federal Government, presumeably with no qualms about it.
Chances are, if you're doing something wrong over the internet though, the FEDS already know about it, and information from google won't affect your position one bit.