Private corporations and governments alike have been making repeated requests for communication records and user data from big media entities like Twitter, Facebook and especially Google. Each company has had different policies for compliance and as requests for information increase in frequency, these policies have either become more or less permissive. All Things Digital reports on Google’s recent standoff with the Texas Attorney General and his demands for more information:
So much for Google’s promise to cooperate with the Texas attorney general’s investigation of its business practices. With that pledge now two years in the past and gathering dust, the company is taking a decidedly different approach to Texas AG Greg Abbott’s repeated requests for documents it has allegedly been withholding from his office. Having first requested more time to produce the documents demanded of it, Google is now simply refusing to turn them over.
In a legal filing Tuesday, Google answered the suit Abbott filed against it in Junedemanding some 14,500 internal documents it has been witholding from his office, citing attorney-client privilege by once again arguing that they are protected communications. The email discussions Abbot has requested are indeed privileged, and Google is justified in keeping them under wraps, the company said in its filing.
Reached for comment, Google reiterated the statement it made in June: “We have shared hundreds of thousands of documents with the Texas Attorney General, and we are happy to answer any questions that regulators have about our business.”
