SpyVeillance: Thread

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Wed Oct 6 15:46:17 PDT 2021


> https://news.yahoo.com/government-secretly-orders-google-track-151000879.html
> https://www.businessinsider.com/google-police-keyword-warrant-provide-search-term-data-report-2021-10

Remember... the news you see is only a TINY fraction the
scope of story that exists... there are thousands of these
illegal and immoral blanket trolling "warrants" spyveillancing
everyone on the planet every day... it's not to catch or stop
anything, else they would have trot out all their wins they
claim to be getting since decades, but they have none of
real note... it's really FUD, a way for their money, power, political,
influence, manipulation, control, enslavement, jailing dissidents
and the entirety of humanity seeking freedom from such power.

Fight back.


https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/10/04/google-keyword-warrants-give-us-government-data-on-search-users/

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21077351-google-keyword-warrant-in-austin-2018
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21077350-google-keyword-warrant-2-in-austin-2018
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21077355-google-keyword-search-austin-2018-3
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21077356-microsoft-keyword-warrant-in-austin-2018
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21077357-yahoo-keyword-warrant-austin-2018

"Keyword Warrants" - Feds Secretly Ordered Google To Identify Anyone
Searching Certain Information

An accidentally unsealed court document reveals that the federal
government secretly ordered Google to provide data on people searching
specific search words or phrases, otherwise known as "keyword
warrants," according to Forbes.

According to the report, the Justice Department inadvertently unsealed
the documents in September (which were promptly re-sealed), which were
reviewed by Forbes. In several instances, law enforcement
investigators asked Google to identify anyone searching for specific
keywords.

The first case was in 2019 when federal investigators were on the hunt
for men they believed sex-trafficked a minor. According to a search
warrant, the minor went missing but reappeared a year later and
claimed to have been kidnapped and sexually assaulted. Investigators
asked Google if anyone had searched the minor's name. The tech giant
responded and provided law enforcement agents with Google accounts and
IP addresses of those who made the searches.

There have been other rare examples of so-called keyword warrants,
such as in 2020 when police asked Google if anyone searched for the
address of an arson victim in the government's racketeering case
against singer R Kelly. Then in 2017, a Minnesota judge requested
Google to provide information on anyone who searched for a  fraud
victim's name.

Forbes also added this update post-publication:

    After publication, Jennifer Lynch, surveillance litigation
director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), highlighted
three other Google keyword warrants that were used in the
investigation into serial Austin bombings in 2018, which resulted in
the deaths of two people.

    Not widely discussed at the time, the orders appear even broader
than the one above, asking for IP addresses and Google account
information of individuals who searched for various addresses and some
terms associated with bomb making, such as “low explosives” and “pipe
bomb.” Similar orders were served on Microsoft and Yahoo for their
respective search engines.

    As for what data the tech companies gave to investigators, that
information remains under seal.

    You can read the orders on Google here, here and here. The
Microsoft and Yahoo orders can be found here and here.

Every year, Google responds to thousands of warrant orders, but the
latest keyword warrant is an entirely new strategy by government
investigators and is becoming increasingly controversial.

"Trawling through Google's search history database enables police to
identify people merely based on what they might have been thinking
about, for whatever reason, at some point in the past," Jennifer
Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the American Civil
Liberties Union, told Forbes. "This never-before-possible technique
threatens First Amendment interests and will inevitably sweep up
innocent people, especially if the keyword terms are not unique and
the time frame not precise. To make matters worse, police are
currently doing this in secret, which insulates the practice from
public debate and regulation," she added.

Google responded news about secret keyword warrants and defended its decision:

    "As with all law enforcement requests, we have a rigorous process
that is designed to protect the privacy of our users while supporting
the important work of law enforcement," a Google spokesperson said.

Court records reviewed by Forbes show Google has given away data on
people who searched for specific keywords, which is more evidence the
US is transforming into an authoritarian state of monitoring and
surveillance of online activities just like China's.


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