14 DAY TRIAL // Google will help the Mumbai police identify web offenders by offering them IP addresses and other information recorded by the search technology. It seems like all the trouble was caused by Google's social network orkut because some of its users misused their identities. Although the agreement isn't based on a contract, the authorities confirmed the partnership with the search giant to find private information stored in their logs.
"There is no written agreement or contract with Google but it is an understanding between us. Two Indian officials and one from the US met us. They have already started providing IP addresses to us and we have been able to crack a case thanks to Google. We are happy," said Sanjay Mohite, DCP, Enforcement. Last year, a community named "I Hate India" sprung up on Orkut and a PIL was filed against Google. This was followed by another PIL after a site defamed the Maratha King Shivaji," NDTV.com, Indian publication, reported.
In the past, Google was rarely involved in this kind of problems but YouTube is more familiar with the authorities' requests to provide private information about its users. The first reported case concerned the details about a YouTube member who uploaded pirated videos of certain movies. Fox, the TV producer, demanded YouTube to offer information about a user who published numerous pirated clips of a movie before its official release date.
It really looks like the search giant fights against hackers and other malicious users of its services because this is not the first attempt of the company to make the Internet safer. Take the example of the numerous malware notifications displayed directly under the link returned on the SERP or the malware alert shown every time a user clicks on an infected website.