Judge orders Google to release data to FBI

Story Originally Appeared in USA TODAY

A federal judge has ordered Google to comply with FBI warrantless demands for customer data.

U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston on Tuesday rejected Google's argument that the so-called "National Security Letters" the company received from the FBI were unconstitutional and unnecessary.

Illston ordered Google to comply with the secret demands even though she found the same letter requests unconstitutional in March in a separate case filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

In a four-page May 20 order in the Google case obtained by the The Associated Press Friday, the judge acknowledged the conflicting rulings.

Google could appeal Illston's decision. The company declined comment Friday.

The Google ruling legally is on hold until the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals can decide the matter. But until then, Judge Illston said the Mountain View, Calif.-based company would have to comply with the FBI's request for data unless the company can show the federal law enforcement agency didn't follow proper procedures in making its demands for customer data in the 19 letters Google is challenging.

After receiving sworn statements from two top-ranking FBI officials, Illston said she was satisfied that 17 of the 19 letters were issued properly. She wanted more information on two other letters.

The letters, along with the recent seizure of reporters' phone records by President Obama's administration, have prompted widespread complaints of government privacy violations in the name of national security.

In 2007, the Justice Department's inspector general found widespread violations in the FBI's use of the letters, including demands without proper authorization and information obtained in non-emergency circumstances.

The FBI has tightened oversight of the system. The agency made 16,511 National Security Letter requests for information regarding 7,201 people in 2011, the latest data available.

In March, Illston found that the FBI's demand that letter request recipients refrain from telling anyone — including customers — that they had received the requests was a violation of free speech rights.

"We are disappointed that the same judge who declared these letters unconstitutional is now requiring compliance with them," Kurt Opsah, an EFF attorney, said Friday.

Opsah said it could be many months before the appeals court rules on the constitutionality of the letter requests, which the FBI sends to telecommunication companies, Internet service providers, banks and others durring war-on-terror investigations.

The letter requests are used to collect unlimited kinds of sensitive, private information, such as financial and phone records. It is unclear from the judge's May 20 ruling what types of information the government is seeking to obtain or who the government is targeting in its letter request to Google.

Illston's order omits any mention of Google or that the proceedings have been closed to the public.

But the judge said "the petitioner" was involved in a similar case filed on April 22 in New York federal court. That's how the AP determined Illston was ruling about Google on May 20.

Public records show that on April 22, the federal government filed a "petition to enforce National Security Letters" against the Internet giant after it declined to cooperate with government demands.