Google and the US government are set to face off in court today. The issue at hand concerns requests made by the US government for Google, Yahoo, MSN and AOL to hand over search data. The US government claims that this is in aid of curbing child pornography on the internet. All except Google have complied, with the search giant refusing, claiming that to comply would not help the US government and could hurt the company. The US Department of Justice then subpoenaed the company for the data.
Google's non-compliant stance may also relate to its plan to offer an online data storage service in the future. The G-Drive service, which was accidentally unveiled last week, would allow users to store any and all content in a separate online database. Users could potentially back up their entire computers on G-Drive. If Google loses its case and must submit information to the US government, it could thwart its plans for G-Drive, which is likely to contain more sensitive personal data.