Google's record of resisting government intrusion mixed

Google is fighting the good fight in the United States, but it folded like a cheap tent in China.
A federal judge has set a Feb. 27 hearing to examine the Google Inc. decision to withhold millions of online search records from the U.S. Department of Justice.
This is a noble effort by the world's most popular Internet search engine to resist the attorney general's demand for 1 million Web site addresses reached from Google and one week of search queries.
The Justice Department says it needs the data to defend the Child Online Protection Act, which is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union as a violation of U.S. Constitution's First Amendment right of free speech. The Justice Department's idea of defending a federal law against a claim that it violates the First Amendment is to shred the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches.
Prying eyes
Unreasonable searches of communications have been much in the news of late, regarding the president's claim that he has the power to trump the Fourth Amendment anytime he believes the national safety is in jeopardy. The only thing these issues have in common is the unseemly willingness of the government to insert itself into private communications, with or without court permission.
Microsoft Corp. and the Time Warner Inc. unit America Online have already turned over the information sought by the justice department, which is seeking to save an anti-pornography law that was declared unconstitutional in 2004.
We hope that Microsoft and America Online (and their subscribers) don't come to rue the day that they so happily complied. If the Justice Department is willing to go after this information to bolster its argument in a court case, it's a safe bet that it won't be long before it seeks similar or more intrusive information in other cases.
Other interests
Of course it might be argued that Google is more concerned with protecting its trade secrets than the privacy of its subscribers, but that is not a piddling concern for an $80 billion company that is built on intellectual property. And you would think that the administration would realize that its desire to make a case doesn't outweigh a company's proprietary interests.
Google's record as a fighter for all that is right, however, is not as impressive in China.
In exchange for being given access to China's market, Google agreed to practice Chinese-style censorship. China's 100 million Web surfers will find a lot of words may as well not exist. Seek responses to "democracy" or "human rights" or trying to find out about Taiwanese independence or Tibetan freedom will draw blanks.
To its credit, Google was the last to accede to China's censorship demands. Microsoft and Yahoo already had.
Let's hope that Google does not similarly abandon the courage of its convictions in its fight with the U.S. Justice Department over access to its data banks.