WASHINGTON - In a suit filed Tuesday, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation asked a federal court to order the release of all communications between
Google and a former Department of Justice official who now works for the
Internet search company.
Jane Horvath was the Department of Justice's chief privacy and civil liberties officer when Google fought the department's broad request for information.
In the suit it filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said the Department of Justice violated the Freedom of Information Act by withholding records about Horvath and Google.
In 2006, the Department of Justice sought the text of every term entered into Google's search engine during a one-week period. Google largely succeeded in resisting the request, which was eventually scaled back to 5,000 random searches, the Electronic Frontier Foundation said.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation said Horvath was "publicly critical" of the initial request's scope.
Google announced that it hired Horvath as a senior privacy counsel in August 2007.
"Google has an unprecedented ability to collect and retain very personal information about millions of Americans, and [the Department of Justice] and other law enforcement agencies have developed a huge appetite for that information," said David Sobel, senior counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "We want to know what discussions DOJ's top privacy lawyer had with Google before leaving her government position to join the company."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking all correspondence between Horvath and Google, including email.
The foundation said it filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the information more than six months ago as Horvath was preparing to leave. The group said the Department of Justice hasn't responded to the request.
Responses are required within 20 working days.
