Google Gave WikiLeaks Data to Feds…2.5 Years Ago

"We are astonished and disturbed that Google waited" 2.5 years to notify us, WikiLeaks said today.

WikiLeaks is a little peeved that Google handed over details about WikiLeaks staffers to the feds, and failed to inform the whistleblower organization for more than two years.

According to WikiLeaks, Google provided the U.S. government with email content, metadata, contacts, draft emails, deleted emails, and IP addresses connected to the accounts of Investigations editor Sarah Harrison, Section Editor Joseph Farrell, and senior journalist and spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson.

That document turnover apparently happened 2.5 years ago, but WikiLeaks was not informed until Dec. 23, 2014, the organization wrote in a Monday letter to Google.

"We are astonished and disturbed that Google waited over two and a half years to notify subscribers that a search warrant was issued for their records," WikiLeaks said.

According to WikiLeaks, the U.S. government is trying to build a case against WikiLeaks for espionage, conspiracy to commit espionage, theft or conversion of property belonging to the U.S. government, Computer Fraud and Abuse Act violations, and conspiracy.

In 2010, WikiLeaks released 250,000 cables from the State Department, as well as U.S. Army field reports about the Iraq War and military logs of the war in Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks said its staff does not use Google services "for internal communications or for communicating with sources, [but] the search warrants nonetheless represent a substantial invasion of their personal privacy and freedom."

Companies like Google are often unable to disclose when it receives requests for information - and releases that data - due to gag orders. WikiLeaks said "there is no indication that Google fought the gag, and it is unlikely that the gag just happened to expire the day before Christmas."

According to WikiLeaks, Twitter fought a similar gags for warrants "in much shorter time-frames." Those documents were unsealed in 2011.

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Google Gave WikiLeaks Data to Feds...2.5 Years Ago