The US government has forced Google to track and provide data from users' search queries by keywords. Reported by The New York Post.
According to the publication, the US government ordered the company to provide information, including account names, IP addresses and CookieIDs, about anyone who entered certain searches. This was done to facilitate the work of law enforcement agencies.
The police and the investigating authorities used the so-called “keyword warrant” for their own purposes. Law enforcement officers sent queries to Google to find information on alleged criminals involved in human trafficking and violence against minors.
In recent years, only two such orders have been made public. However, experts say this practice raises concerns, as innocent users may become involved in a criminal investigation.
“This never-before-seen method threatens the interests of the First Amendment (the US constitution that protects freedom of speech, press and assembly – Lenta.ru ) and inevitably captures innocent people, especially if the keywords are not unique and the time frame is not accurate. To make matters worse, the police are currently doing it in secret, which isolates the practice from public debate and regulation, ”concluded Jennifer Granik, Oversight and Cybersecurity Advisor at the American Civil Liberties Union.
In 2017, a Philadelphia court ordered Google, subject to a court order, to transfer to the US authorities the correspondence of users of the Gmail mail service stored on servers outside the United States. The company decided not to speak out on the results of the lawsuits.
