Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cybersecurity
    • Cybersecurity

    Google Defends Delay in Alerting WikiLeaks of Email Search Warrants

    By
    Jaikumar Vijayan
    -
    January 28, 2015
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin
      Google and WikiLeaks search

      An attorney for Google on Wednesday defended the company’s apparent delay in informing three WikiLeaks members about giving the government access to their email accounts nearly three years ago in response to secret court orders.

      In an interview with The Washington Post, Google attorney Albert Gidari claimed the company was unable to notify the three individuals earlier because of a gag order imposed on it by the court that issued the search warrants for the email accounts.

      Google had fought the March 2012 gag orders like it has been fighting all secret search warrants and gag orders pertaining to WikiLeaks since at least January 2011, Gidari said. It was able to inform affected customers only after those gag orders were partially lifted late last year, The Post reported Gidari as saying. However, the actual details on the information sought by the government via the search warrants is still sealed and Google is not at liberty to talk about them, he said.

      Gidari was responding to the sharp criticism of Google’s handling of the disclosures by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the non-profit advocacy group representing Sarah Harrison, Kristinn Hrafnsson and Joseph Farrell, the three WikiLeaks members whose emails were seized.

      In a letter addressed to Google Chairman Eric Schmidt and its general counsel, attorneys from CCR said Google had notified the three individuals about the government orders only on Dec. 23, 2014.

      “We are astonished and disturbed that Google waited over two and a half years to notify its subscribers that a search warrant was issued for their records,” the letter said. It noted how Twitter had successfully resisted similar court-issued gag orders when the government sought access to account information belonging to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other members of the organization.

      The letter castigated Google for even now not informing the three individuals about what exactly the company had turned over to the government in response to the search warrants. Had they been aware of what was going on, they could have “intervened and protected their rights to privacy, association and freedom from illegal searches,” the letter said.

      Google did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

      The concerns expressed in recent days by WikiLeaks over the data disclosure has once again focused attention on an issue that Google, like other major U.S. Internet companies, has been trying to desperately put behind it for the past 18 months. Edward Snowden’s leaks raised a lot of questions about the role Internet companies played in providing private customer data to the National Security Agency (NSA) and other intelligence agencies.

      Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and others have maintained that in recent years they were compelled to release customer data to the NSA, FBI and other government agencies under secret counter-terrorism-related court warrants and gag orders. While, some, like Twitter, have resisted publicly, others like Google claim they have been fighting the orders privately for quiet some time. One case, involving Microsoft’s refusal to provide the government with access to an email account stored on a server in Dublin, Ireland, appears headed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

      American technology companies, like Google and Microsoft, have a lot at stake over the issue. Snowden’s revelations have made some companies, especially in Europe and parts of Asia, uncomfortable about using American cloud hosting services and other technology firms. So far, at least, initial estimates that U.S. companies could lose tens of billions of dollars over such concerns appear to be off base. But broad concerns remain among overseas firms about government access to customer data held by American cloud hosting companies.

      In an attempt to quell such concerns, Google and others have demanded that they be allowed to publicly disclose at least aggregate data on the government requests they receive each year for customer data. Google’s Transparency Report is one example of how the company and other Internet firms have been trying to communicate more details of government requests for customer data.

      Avatar
      Jaikumar Vijayan
      Vijayan is an award-winning independent journalist and tech content creation specialist covering data security and privacy, business intelligence, big data and data analytics.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×