Oct. 26 (UPI) — Google has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice to reform and upgrade its legal process compliance program following loss of data sought in a 2016 search warrant.
The Justice Department said an Independent Compliance Professional “will be retained to serve as an outside third-party related to Google’s compliance enhancements.”
“The Department is committed to ensuring that electronic communications providers comply with court orders to protect and facilitate criminal investigations,” said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr., in a statement. “This agreement demonstrates the Department’s resolve in ensuring that technology companies, such as Google, provide prompt and complete responses to legal process to ensure public safety and bring offenders to justice.”
According to mutually agreed facts in the legal agreement between the Justice Department and Google, a June 30, 2016 search warrant sought data related to “the investigation of an illegal cryptocurrency exchange called BTC-e and its administrators.”
The search warrant was served on Google by Homeland Security Special Agent Michael Delaney.
Google stored the data in an “intelligent network” that automatically moved data automatically between locations. Google could not always determine the country in which certain data was stored.
So, according to the legal filing, Google decided that it was only obligated to provide data stored in the United States in response to U.S. subpoenas.
In the legal proceedings after the warrant was served a judge issued an Oct. 19, 2017 preservation order to Google for the data sought in the warrant.
But in 2018, Google reported to the government that some data sought in the warrant had been deleted.
The agreement between Google and the Justice Department requires Google to improve its legal compliance program and to file reports with the government at six-month intervals so the government can monitor progress the company’s progress.
“The warrant underlying this agreement was sought in connection with a significant criminal investigation,” said Northern District of California U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds in a statement. “This agreement will help to ensure that, moving forward, Google will maintain the technical capability and resources necessary to comply with lawful warrants and orders, such as the one at issue in this case, that are critical to federal criminal investigations.”
