Google is getting some heat from WikiLeaks for taking almost three years to reveal that it gave federal law-enforcement officials data belonging three of the non-profit organization's employees.
WikiLeaks' lawyers sent a letter to Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt stating that the search giant told WikiLeaks on Dec. 24, 2014, that it gave up information such as Gmail content, subscriber information and metadata of the three staff members after receiving secret federal search warrants connected to concerns of espionage and theft of U.S. government property, according to Mashable.
"We are astonished and disturbed that Google waited over two and a half years to notify its subscribers that a search warrant was issued for their records," the letter reads.
WikiLeaks asks Google in the letter to provide a list of all the material it gave to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as well as an explanation as to whether the company challenged the warrants or if it has received any other demands for data it has yet to disclose, The Guardian reported.
The three employees involved in the case are investigations editor Sarah Harrison, spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson and senior editor Joseph Farrell. Email content given to the FBI included sent and received emails, drafts and deleted emails, along with their source addresses, destination addresses, size, length, date and time.
"Knowing that the FBI read the words I wrote to console my mother over a death in the family makes me feel sick," said Harrison, a British citizen, who also accused Google of helping the U.S. government hide "the invasion of privacy into a British journalist's personal email address. Neither Google nor the US government are living up to their own laws or rhetoric in privacy or press protections."
Alex Abdo, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said Google should have challenged the warrant, which he calls "dangerously overbroad," Mashable reported.
Google has claimed to have put a high focus on public transparency, having described in a blog post in 2013 its methods for responding to government requests for data.
A Google spokesperson said the company doesn't comment on "individual cases" and that it follows "the law like any other company," Mashable reported.
"When we receive a subpoena or court order, we check to see if it meets both the letter and the spirit of the law before complying," the spokesperson added. "And if it doesn't we can object or ask that the request is narrowed. We have a track record of advocating on behalf of our users."
