Minnesota Judge Signed Warrant For Users' Google Search Data About A Person's Name

A Minnesota court judge has signed what appears to be a stunningly broad search warrant to compel Google to provide search information to local law enforcement. The request for search data is part of an identity theft and fraud case.

The search warrant requests information about anyone searching for variations of the name "Douglas" between December 1, 2016 and January 7, 2017. Using a fake passport with the victim's photo and name, identified only as "Douglas" in the warrant, a fraudster fraudulently obtained $28,000 via a wire transfer from a credit union bank account. The credit union relied upon the passport as identification.

During their investigation, the Edina Police Department searched for images with the victim's name using several search engines (e.g., Yahoo, Bing, Google), and found images on all, but only Google's search results included an image of the photo used on the fake passport. Based upon these facts, Hennepin County Judge Gary Larson signed the warrant requiring Google to turn over information about anyone who searched for variations of Douglas's full name. The warrant requests the following information about search engine users: names, addresses, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, birth dates, IP (Internet protoccol) addresses, MAC addresses, and dates/times the searches were performed.

The search warrant also requests, "Information related to the content the user is viewing/using." What exactly is that? Does that refer to other information collected by Google in each user's Google account (e.g., passwords, Google Drive documents, Gmail messages, calendar appointments, Google Chat sessions, etc.)?

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper reported:

"Privacy law experts say that the warrant is based on an unusually broad definition of probable cause that could set a troubling precedent. "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... McGeveran said it’s unusual for a judge to sign off on a warrant that bases probable cause on so few facts. "It’s much more usual for a search warrant to be used to gather evidence for a suspect that’s already identified, instead of using evidence to find a suspect... If the standards for getting a broad warrant like this are not strong, you can have a lot of police fishing expeditions." "

Judge Larson signed the warrant on February 1, 2017. Reportedly, Google will fight in court against the demands in the search warrant.

This warrant seems stunningly broad since it does not contain the name of a specific suspect, suspects, and/or criminal organization. There are many legitimate reasons for persons to search using the victim's name. Chiefly, many other people have the same name.

Other questions remain. The warrant did not state whether or not law enforcement searched social networking accounts for the victim's image. Many social networking accounts include profile photos of users. How certain are lawn enforcement officials that the fraudster didn't obtain the photo from a social networking account? Plus, many social networking users don't utilize the privacy controls available for their online accounts and photos.

What are your opinions?