Online group slams Google

Google has come in for severe criticism from WikiLeaks over its decision to comply with a court order seeking emails and other data relating to three of the journalistic group’s employees.

The internet giant handed over data effectively encapsulating all digital communications to and from WikiLeaks investigations editor Sarah Harrison; the organisation’s spokesperson, Kristinn Hrafnsson and section editor Joseph Farrell.

It has also emerged that Google took more than two-and-a-half years to notify WikiLeaks of the warrants thus, WikiLeaks claims, denying the employees in question the opportunity to “protect their interests, including their rights to privacy, association and freedom from illegal searches”.

WikiLeaks claims what they refer to as the “take everything” warrants are unconstitutionally broad and could have been opposed.

Google says it had been unable to disclose earlier that the warrants had been issued as a gag order had been imposed.

The search engine giant added that the order had since been lifted but did not specify when this occurred.

Wikileaks was informed of the warrants — issued in March 2012 — on Christmas Eve last year.

The data is believed to have been sought in relation to an ongoing investigation into WikiLeaks launched in 2010 stemming from documents leaked by US army private Chelsea Manning relating to, among other issues, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a statement Google said: “We don’t talk about individual cases. Obviously, we follow the law like any other company. 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. 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”.

Google declined to clarify at which data centre the data was stored, opening the possibility that it may have been held at one of its centre’s outside of the US — including one in Dublin.

The issue of data protection has come into sharp focus in this country recently given US authorities’ attempts to access data held on Microsoft’s Irish servers.

Microsoft has chosen to be in contempt of court while it challenges a US court order to provide data relating to an ongoing legal matter.

A host of other major technology companies have backed Microsoft’s position, including Apple and eBay .