The US government is said to have secretly authorized Google to provide user data about anyone who types in certain search terms. This raises fears that innocent Internet users may be involved in serious investigations more often than previously thought.
To track down criminals, federal investigators have begun using new “keyword permissions” to request Google to provide information about anyone who searches for a victim’s name or address within a given year, according to court filings that were accidentally discovered and accessed by Forbes.
‘Police can only identify people based on their thoughts’
Google has to respond to thousands of permissions each year, but permission for keywords used in searches is seen as a relatively new and controversial strategy used by the government.
“Browsing Google’s search history database allows police to identify people at some point in the past, for whatever reason, based solely on what they think,” Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity consultant for the American Civil Liberties Union, told Forbes.
“This previously unfeasible technique threatens the interests of the First Amendment and will inevitably put innocent people under suspicion, especially if the keyword terms are not unique and the time frame is precise. To make matters worse, the police are currently doing it in secret, this It also insulates the practice from public discussions and regulations.”
The government said the scope of the permits was limited in order to avoid suspicion of innocent people searching for certain terms. However, it was not made public how many users’ data was sent to the government and what the scope of the permission requests was.
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