Yahoo gave search records to US Department of Justice
January 19, 2006
Yahoo acknowledged on Thursday handing over search data, but insisted no personal information on users was given to government attorneys. The disclosure followed reports that rival search engine Google had refused to comply with a similar subpoena.
A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company, which she described as a "rigorous" defender of user privacy, did not provide personal data in response to the Justice Department subpoena.
"In our opinion, this is not a privacy issue," spokeswoman Mary Osako said in an email. "We complied on a limited basis and did not provide any personally identifiable information."
It was not immediately clear whether other major search engines had received subpoenas. Microsoft Corp., which owns the MSN search engine, declined to discuss the matter, issuing instead a statement saying, "It is our policy to respond to legal requests in a very responsive and timely manner in full compliance with applicable law." Ask Jeeves, owned by InterActiveCorp, was not immediately available for comment.
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