EDITORIAL PRIVACY NAIVETE FEDS HAVE NO RIGHT TO GOOGLE'S DATA - BUT NOT BECAUSE IT'S PRIVATE.

ALTHOUGH the court fight between the federal government and Mountain View-based Google over the release of data on millions of Internet searches appears to be one of privacy, that's got little to do with it.

The government is seeking court action after Google refused a subpoena request to turn over millions of aggregate data of search patterns to help the government gather background in a legal fight. The information would help the U.S. Justice Department defend the constitutionality of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which was struck down by the Supreme Court two years ago. As alarming as that may sound, the records sought do not include individual user information that could link anyone with a particular search or keyword.

Still, there is reason to worry about the fight. The government is misusing the power of a subpoena, which is intended as a tool to compel parties to turn over evidence in a crime. In essence, the feds are using the tool to bludgeon a private company into providing proprietary information to which Washington has no right, but might help them back up the argument that Internet filters do not protect children from pornography.

Google doesn't have any obligation to provide research to the government. And neither do any other private search companies, although Yahoo, Microsoft and America Online all complied with the Justice Department's data subpoenas.

Google resisted, arguing that complying with the subpoena could jeopardize its trade secrets. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. It shouldn't even matter. Google has the right to say no to such an unreasonable request for whatever reason.

Still, Google should not be commended as a great protector of Internet privacy.

If the Justice Department had offered to pay dearly for the information, there very likely would have been no fight. That's fair. Google's a business and its product is data. The company didn't create the best online search engine out of the goodness of its organizational heart.

If any good comes from this legal fight, perhaps it will help to clear up any remaining privacy naivete among Internet users. In this age of sophisticated Internet surveillance technology, we must assume that nothing we do online is private. It's an open Internet and that means privacy is at a premium.