Security News > 2020 > October > Google Responds to Warrants for “About” Searches

The very nature of these searches requires mass surveillance.

Homeland Security special agent Sylvette Reynoso testified that her team began by asking Google to produce a list of public IP addresses used to google the home of the victim in the run-up to the arson.

On June 15, 2020, the Honorable Ramon E. Reyes, Jr., United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of New York, authorized a search warrant to Google for users who had searched the address of the Residence close in time to the arson.

While word of these sort of requests for the identities of people making specific searches will raise the eyebrows of privacy-conscious users, Google told The Register the warrants are a very rare occurrence, and its team fights overly broad or vague requests.

Data obtained by Avondale police from Google did show that a device logged into Molina's Google account was in the area at the time of Knight's murder.

News URL

https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/10/google-responds-to-warrants-for-about-searches.html