A federal judge in Silicon Valley took the unusual step last week of rejecting a routine email search request, and suggested that Google(s goog) and the government take steps to halt the now-routine practice in which tech companies hand over the entirety of their customer’s cloud-based computer accounts.
“The Technorati are … everywhere,” wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal. “And yet too few understand, or even suspect, the essential role played by many of these workers and their employers in facilitating most government access to private citizen’s data.”
The words introduced a six-page decision in which Grewal refused to issue an order that would have forced Google to hand over the email account of a government employee suspected of corruption. Grewal ordered the details of the investigation, including the name of the suspect, to be redacted but stated that the refusal order should be published.
Grewal’s order comes two months after a judge in Washington, D.C. blocked
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