A legal battle between Google and the United States Department of Justice is heating up as the Internet behemoth challenges the Obama administration’s warrantless requests for personal user data.
Google has been opposing the National Security Letters, or NSLs,
documents sent to telecommunication companies in secret that
compel them to provide information about subscribers to the
government. The Justice Department does not need to warrant or
subpoena the information, instead relying on a Patriot
Act-provision that allows Federal Bureau of Investigation offices
around the country to request data by stating only that it is
required for a national security matters.
Because NSLs are filed under seal and in almost all cases are
accompanied by a gag order that restricts the recipient from
speaking about the request, little information is publically
known about the process. On Friday, CNET reporter Declan
McCullagh revealed that Google’s attempt to shut-down 19 NSLs it
received ended with a federal judge saying the company must honor
17 of the government’s requests.
“A federal judge has ruled that Google must comply with the
FBI’s warrantless requests for confidential user data, despite
the search company’s arguments that the secret demands are
illegal,” McCullagh wrote early Friday.
McCullagh went on to say that the decision was made following a
closed door court session held May 10 in San Francisco,
California. According to his sources, US District Judge Susan
Illston rejected Google’s attempt to modify or throw out 19 of
the NSLs they’ve received while leaving the opportunity for two
of the requests to be squashed.
“It wasn’t a complete win for the Justice Department,
however,” McCullagh added, noting, “Illston all but
invited Google to try again” by saying the company failed to
raise arguments “specific to the 19 NSLs at issue.” Google
will likely narrow their complaint to more specifically contest
the requests for those 17 orders, while Illston asked the
government to “provide further information” prior to
making a decision about the other two.
Only hours after McCullagh wrote of the closed door hearing, he
published a second article revealing a separate installation in
the long-standing fight between the feds and Google. As it turns
out, the recent meeting of attorneys in San Francisco conducted
in secrecy wasn’t the only legal episode involving the two as if
late: McCullagh wrote that the Justice Department filed a lawsuit
against Google in New York on April 22 asking a federal judge to
force Google to comply with their requests.
“Immediately after the FBI’s New York field office sent an NSL
on April 22, the bureau filed a ‘petition to enforce’ in
Manhattan federal court on the same day, an abrupt and arguably
undiplomatic move that Google says did not give it a chance to
either comply or exercise its legal right to seek judicial
review,” he wrote.
McCullagh added that Google asked for that lawsuit to be rejected
at the time, citing the case happening in San Francisco. Judge
Illston refused their warning, according to CNET because the
government’s issue “is more squarely raised” in the New
York litigation.
Judge Illston ruled in March that NSLs are unconstitutional, but the Department of
Justice filed an appeal immediately after her decision. Until
that matter is settled, Google is expected to respond for the
still standing requests for user data pertaining to the 17
accounts presented by the DoJ.
Wired reported previously that 300,000 NSLs have been sent out
since 2000, and just this year Google began publishing limited
information on the federal requests it receives. Google said they
received letters for between 5,000 and 9,000 user accounts
between 2009 and 2012.
This article originally appeared on: RT