Microsoft, Google and Yahoo were issued notices by India's Supreme Court on Wednesday, following a complaint that they were promoting techniques and products for the selection of an unborn child's sex through advertising and links on their search engines.

There is a deliberate attempt by these companies to target Indian users with advertisements that claim to help in the selection of a child's sex, said Sabu Mathew George, the petitioner in the case, in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Google said various factors go into managing ad program policy, including local legal requirements and user experience. "We review our policies regularly and make changes to keep them current and effective. We have not yet received the petition from the Supreme Court, but we take local laws extremely seriously and will review the petition carefully."

Yahoo and Microsoft were unavailable for comment.

Read more @ Computer World