Kudos to Google

As if I don't already have enough good things to say about Google, now they are showing that they'll stick to their principles and stand up to the federal government. The Department of Justice has issued a subpeona to Google, ordering that they hand over search records. Unlike AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo!, Google has challenged the demands of the feds, stating that these records are private. So what are the feds looking for? Information on terrorist groups? Nope. Pornography. That's right: they need to subpeona Google's search records to find out there's porn on the internet. As Jane Galt asks at Asymmetrical Information, don't they have computers over there at Justice?

In a related story, it appears that Google's stock price has taken a hit since this has hit the news, as investors may be fearing that Google is now in the crosshairs of the DOJ. It's sad that Google may have to spend their time defending the company and their user's privacy rather than creating cool stuff like this.