Police get search warrant for everyone who Googled Edina resident's name

You better hope you did not search for the person (name withheld) who had $28,000 stolen from a credit union account. The crooks are thought to use Google to help get the info to fool the credit union into giving them the $$$$. The police have a search warrant, but Google said they are going to fight this.

Police have a warrant in hand to force Google to hand over anyone who searched for a persons name who had $28,000 stolen from a Credit Union. Google is going to fight this.

Internet giant Google is vowing to fight a search warrant demanding that Edina police be able to collect information on any resident who used certain search terms as authorities try to locate a thief who swindled a resident out of $28,500.

Privacy law experts say that the warrant is based on an unusually broad definition of probable cause that could set a troubling precedent.

This is cause for concern because it is closer to a dragnet, and the 4th amendment is there to stop this, said William McGeveran a Law professor. But County Dist Court Judge Gary Larson gave the warrant anyway, and it pertains to anyone who searched for the victims name from Dec.1 to Jan 7th.

This kind of warrant is cause for concern because it’s closer to these dragnet searches that the Fourth Amendment is designed to prevent,” said William McGeveran, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Issued by Hennepin County District Judge Gary Larson in early February, the warrant pertains to anyone who searched variations of the resident’s name on Google from Dec. 1 through Jan. 7.

www.startribune.com...

Will it hold up court? stephanie Lacambra said she is not sure it would stand up to constitutional scrutiny. So if this goes to court, the crooks may get off because of the dragnet way the evidence was gathered.

The privacy law experts all questioned whether the evidence obtained by Edina police would hold up in court.

“I’m rather skeptical of this warrant’s ability to survive constitutional scrutiny,” said Stephanie Lacambra, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights nonprofit based in San Francisco.

By golly they sure did

The other thread from yesterday

a reply to: Shamrock6


Oops, missed that one. I hope Google, of all companies, sets the legal community straight.

originally posted by: Shamrock6
By golly they sure did

The other thread from yesterday

Please add further comments to the ongoing discussion in the above linked thread.
Thanks

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