The US Department of Justice has attacked Google over the company's refusal to hand over search records demanded by the US government. The DoJ claims that it positively needs the search files in order to demonstrate that sites dealing in pornographic images of children are not only widespread but can be easily located and viewed. However, privacy advocates claim that the move constitutes a fundamental breach of individual's privacy rights.
The Bush administration is also contending that the existing filtering system does not work and is demanding tougher controls. An earlier Bill known as the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was thrown out by the courts as being unconstitutional.
The US Department of Justice has now put together an eighteen page report to the court challenging Google's refusal to hand over the search results. Other search engines, including Yahoo!, MSN and AOL, have now turned over their search data, with only Google refusing.