A U.S. federal judge has issued a split decision in a case involving a popular Internet search engine and the U.S. Justice Department.
In a ruling issued Friday, Judge James Ware ordered the company Google (Incorporated) to hand over to the government the addresses of 50 thousand Web sites that consumers look for through its search engine. But he denied the Justice Department's request to obtain a list of keywords used by consumers to search for certain Web sites through Google.
The Justice Department requested the data as part of the Bush administration's effort to defend a federal law created to shield children from online pornography.
A lawyer for Google says the judge's ruling means the government does not have unrestricted power when demanding data from Internet companies.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.