US Court orders Google to comply with overseas email search warrants

Google probably expected that the courts would side with them on their ongoing battle with the FBI, just like they did with Microsoft. Unfortunately for them, the ruling went against them. A U.S judge has ordered the tech giant to comply with requests from the FBI to give information in the instances that some customer emails have been stored outside of the US. Obviously, this is a blow for tech companies and privacy advocates that have been fighting against warrants that they believe violate civil liberties.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Rueter ruled on Friday that the order from the FBI for Google to transfer their emails from a foreign server to a local one so they can review the specific emails did not qualify as a seizure and therefore is not an infringement on an individual’s privacy. Google said that they sometimes break up emails into pieces and some of them may be placed in servers outside the US, but they do not necessarily know where these parts are specifically stored. The specific emails that the FBI is requesting for them are part of a domestic fraud investigation.

Seven months ago, in an almost similar case, the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Microsoft, saying they should not be forced by the FBI to turn over emails stored in Dublin, Ireland. Investigators were demanding Microsoft’s compliance in the narcotics case they were looking into, but the courts said otherwise, in a decision that earned praise from the American Civil Liberties Union and the US Chamber of Commerce.

Google had no such luck, but as expected, they will be appealing this decision. “We will continue to push back on overbroad warrants,” they said in their official statement. They apparently receive more than 25,000 requests every year from various US authorities to disclose user data in possible criminal cases, but the basic stand of the company is to foremost protect the privacy of their users.

VIA: Reuters