More pressure on Google

So the feds keep pushing Google to release search data as evidence for a case in which Google is not a party. I wonder very much at the precedence of such an action; any constitutional scholars out there want to help me understand this?

The deeper question of implications on privacy rights remains as well:

Although the Justice Department said it doesn't want any personal information now, the victory would likely encourage far more invasive requests in the future, said University of Connecticut law professor Paul Schiff Berman, who specializes in Internet law.

"The erosion of privacy tends to happen incrementally," Berman said. "While no one intrusion may seem that big, over the course of the next decade or two, you might end up in a place as a society where you never thought you would be."