Google ordered to hand private customer data over to FBI investigators

the guardian ^ | 6/1/2013 | Matt Williams

[tobyhill]

A US judge has ordered Google to comply with FBI secret demands for customer data, despite earlier ruling the warrantless orders unconstitutional.

District court judge Susan Illston this week rejected the internet search giant's argument that so-called National Security Letters (NSLs) violated its constitutional rights. As such it ordered Google to hand over private information relating to US citizens to federal agents.

It comes despite Illston earlier ruling the letters unconstitutional in a separate case in March. In that case, brought by non-profit advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the judge said that such demands violated the right to free speech.

She also ruled against gagging clauses attached to the demands that prevent the recipients of NSLs from disclosing the mere existence of an order.

"The court concludes that the nondisclosure provision violates the First Amendment … the government is therefore enjoined from issuing NSLs … or from enforcing the nondisclosure provision in this or any other case," Illston concluded in March.

[july4thfreedomfoundation]

Thanks.

ixquick.com looks good.

[liberty or death]

I dumped FB the minute they started putting ads on my page. Not because of the ads but because I could see how closely they monitored my postings and had every interest of mine covered...Creepy!

[grania]

I checked “startpage”. It says “enhanced by google”. What the heck does that mean?

[T Wayne]

There is a “DETAILS” button right below that notice!!

[grania]

Thanks. As soon as I saw the word “google” I didn’t want to press any more buttons. They do look really adamant about user privacy.

[bmwcyle]

Google is the government.

[Jed Eckert]

They are not affliated with Google. My understanding is that Startpage uses the Google search engine through a separate server (not tied in to google) then forwards the search results to you. Your IP information and other identifiers are not recorded by Startpage and Google only has the anonymous search info from Startpage. More info on the Startpage home page links.