“Interesting” news this morning from the Mercury News: Feds After Google Data. Apparently the Bush administration asked a Federal judge to order Google to hand over a broad range of material from their databases. The move is reported to be an attempt by the Bush administration to revive an internet child protection law that was struck down two years ago by the Supreme Court.

Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, is reported to have said that Google will fight the government’s effort “vigorously.'’ Clearly this type of action could spell big trouble for companies like Google, if they are forced to turn over potentially sensitive data about their users whenever a court order is handed to them. Users who fear their relative anonymity is no longer safe in the hands of search portals like Google will surely turn to alternative portals and methods to find what they are searching for on the web.

Thanks to Philipp Lenssen for finding this.