Wired reports that FBI agents who were targeting alleged criminal spammers last year obtained a warrant for a suspect’s Google Docs account. This might be the first publicly acknowledged search warrant that benefited from a suspect’s reliance on cloud computing.
As the article indicates, “Privacy advocates have long warned that law enforcement agencies can access sensitive files stored on services like Google Docs with greater ease than files stored on a target’s hard drive. In particular, the 1986 Stored Communications Act allows the government to access a customer’s data whenever there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to believe the information would be relevant in a criminal investigation — a much lower legal standard than the ‘probable cause’ required for a search warrant.”
While in this case the FBI and prosecutors opted for a full-blown search warrant, this incident may serve as a reminder of the intricacies and ramifications involved in choosing a proper platform to conduct your business on.
For help in deciding which platform to choose for conducting your legitimate and legally sound business, as well as for help in assessing the implications of your current setup, contact us today.
