14 DAY TRIAL // A federal judge has ordered Google to comply with National Security Letters (NSL) sent by the FBI. These letters ask for access to data on users and the FBI doesn't need a warrant for them. What's more, companies are forbidden from even talking about the letters, in most cases.
NSLs were supposed to be used in extreme situations and, as the name suggests, in matters involving national security. The most controversial aspect is the gag order that comes attached to them.
As you can imagine, such a powerful tool gets abused and Google receives thousands of these letters each year. Through them, the FBI can request any data it wants.
Google has only recently started to disclose, broadly, how many NSLs it was getting from the FBI. But it's forbidden from saying anything more. However, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has recently ruled that NSLs are unconstitutional.
This spurred Google to file a lawsuit against the Department of Justice, with the same judge, asking for 19 such letters, that it has been served with recently, to be dismissed and that Google get immunity from them in the future.
The judge didn't grant Google's request and essentially ordered it to comply. But Illston gave Google a window of opportunity suggesting that if the company raised some specific complaints about the letters it had been served with, and not just general criticism, it would have a much better chance of winning.
There's a lot of secrecy surrounding the issue, Google's name is even redacted from the judge's decision.
The search giant may choose to continue the fight, it's very likely that it will. But the government isn't taking this lightly. It's not used to anyone challenging its authority. The Justice Department actually filed its own lawsuit in New York, to force Google to comply with one of the NSLs that it was challenging in the other lawsuit.