Microsoft admits to handing over search data to Feds

Posted on 25 Jan 2006 at 11:08

Microsoft has admitted that it has handed over data from its search engine logs to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

Last week, Google refused a similar request saying that the Department's request was 'overreaching'. Although civil liberties may be in the mind of the company whose motto is famously 'do no evil', more importantly, from Google's point of view is its reputation with its visitors.

In it's response to the DoJ request, Google said 'acceding to the Request would suggest that it is willing to reveal information about those who use its services. This is not a perception that Google can accept.'

The White House has been attempting to gather information about the extent of child pornography on the Internet as part of its defence of the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) law.

All the major search engines were asked to supply data to the Department, and it is accepted that both Yahoo! and AOL have complied, but Microsoft is the first to justify its actions.

Microsoft says that at the request of the DoJ it handed over a random sample of pages from the MSN Search index and some aggregated query logs that listed queries and how often they occurred.

In the MSN Search blog, Ken Moss, the General Manager of MSN Web Search defended the company's actions. In the blog he says that no personal data was included and that while the DoJ can find out how often a term was searched for, it cannot look up IP addresses of users or look for users who used multiple search queries.

Moss says in the blog, 'At MSN Search, we have strict guidelines in place to protect the privacy of our customers data, and I think you'll agree that privacy was fully protected. We tried to strike the right balance in a very sensitive matter'.

However, things are not that simple. Many people have pointed out that users often query personal and identifiable information such as names with phone numbers.

Likewise, as many people have also pointed out, if the Department of Justice really wanted to know how often a term had been searched, it had only to check out one of the many keyword research tools such as WordTracker or Overture.

Author: Steve Malone