In re Google Referrer Header Privacy Litigation

Filing 33

Declaration of Kassra P. Nassiri in Support of #32 Opposition/Response to Motion, filed byPaloma Gaos. (Related document(s) #32 ) (Nassiri, Kassra) (Filed on 10/7/2011)

KASSRA P. NASSIRI (215405)
1 ([e-mail])
CHARLES H. JUNG (217909)
2 ([e-mail])
NASSIRI & JUNG LLP
3 47 Kearny Street, Suite 700
San Francisco, California 94108
4 Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
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MICHAEL J. ASCHENBRENER
6 ([e-mail]) (277114)
ASCHENBRENER LAW, P.C.
7 795 Folsom Street, First Floor
San Francisco, CA 94107
8 Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
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10 Attorneys for Plaintiff and the Putative Class
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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SAN JOSE DIVISION
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PALOMA GAOS, an individual, on behalf of
16 herself and all others similarly situated,

Case No. 5:10-cv-04809-EJD
CLASS ACTION

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Plaintiff,

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v.

19 GOOGLE INC., a Delaware Corporation,
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Defendant.

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DECLARATION OF KASSRA P.
NASSIRI IN SUPPORT OF
PLAINTIFF’S OPPOSITION TO
GOOGLE’S MOTION TO DISMISS
FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT
PURSUANT TO RULES 12(b)(1)
AND 12(b)(6)
Hearing Date: October 28, 2011
Time:
9:00 a.m.
Place:
Courtroom 1, 5th Floor
Hon. Edward J. Davila
Judge:

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NASSIRI DECL. ISO PL.’S OPP’N TO GOOGLE’S MOT. TO DISMISS FAC
5:10-CV-04809

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I, Kassra P. Nassiri, declare as follows:
1. I am a member in good standing of the Bar of the State of California and a partner with the

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firm of Nassiri & Jung, LLP, counsel for plaintiff in this matter. I submit this Declaration

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in support of Plaintiff’s Opposition to Google’s Motion to Dismiss the First Amended

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Complaint Pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6). I make this declaration on my own

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personal knowledge and, if called as a witness, would testify to the matters set forth herein.

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2. Attached hereto as Exhibit 1 is a true and correct copy of Google’s Opposition to the

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Government’s Motion to Compel in Gonzales v. Google, Inc., Case No. 5:06-mc-80006-

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JW, Dkt. No. 12 (N.D. Cal. February 17, 2006), as retrieved from the Public Access to

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Court Electronic Records website on October 7, 2011.

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3. Attached hereto as Exhibit 2 is a true and correct copy of the Declaration of Matt Cutts in

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Gonzales v. Google, Inc., Case No. 5:06-mc-80006-JW, Dkt. No. 14 (N.D. Cal. February

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17, 2006), as retrieved from the Public Access to Court Electronic Records website on

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October 7, 2011.

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I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States and the State of

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California that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on October 7, 2011 in San

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Francisco, California.

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/s/ Kassra P. Nassiri_________
Kassra P. Nassiri

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NASSIRI DECL. ISO PL.’S OPP’N TO GOOGLE’S MOT. TO DISMISS FAC
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5:10-CV-04809

EXHIBIT 1

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ALBERT GIDARI, JR., pro hac vice
([e-mail])
PERKINS COIE LLP
1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4800
Seattle, WA 98101
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
LISA A. DELEHUNT, Bar No. 228551
([e-mail])
PERKINS COIE LLP
180 Townsend Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, California 94107-1909
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
Attorneys for Respondent
GOOGLE INC.

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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
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NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA
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SAN JOSE DIVISION
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ALBERTO R. GONZALES, in his official
capacity as ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE
UNITED STATES,
Movant,

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v.

CASE NO. 5:06-mc-80006-JW
GOOGLE'S OPPOSITION TO THE
GOVERNMENT'S MOTION TO
COMPEL
Hearing:
Time:

March 13, 2006
9:00 a.m.

GOOGLE INC.,
Respondent.

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GOOGLE'S OPPOSITION TO
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CONTENTS
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I.

INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1

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II.

BACKGROUND ...........................................................................................................2

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III.

ARGUMENT.................................................................................................................3
A.

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The Standard for Compelling a Third Party to Respond to a
Subpoena ...........................................................................................................3

B.

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The Government Fails to Establish That the Data Will Lead
to Admissible Evidence .....................................................................................5

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1.

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C.

URLs......................................................................................................8

3.

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Search Queries .......................................................................................6

2.

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The Data Is Not Useful for Any Study ..................................................9

The Subpoena Demands Google's Valuable Trade Secrets...............................9

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1.

The Demanded Data Contains Valuable Trade
Secrets and Confidential Commercial Information .............................10

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2.

Disclosure of Google's Trade Secrets Is A
Significant Possibility..........................................................................12

3.

The Government Has Not Shown a Substantial
Need.....................................................................................................13

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D.

The Subpoena Imposes an Undue Burden on Google .....................................15
1.

The Government's Offer to Collaborate Is
Inadequate and Unrealistic ..................................................................17

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The Production of the Requested Data Will Result
in a Chilling Effect on Google's Business and User
Trust.....................................................................................................18

4.

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The Time and Resources Required to Pull the
Requested Information Would Be Significant.....................................16

2.

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Google Should Not Bear the Burden of Responding
to Potentially Inadequate Process Based on ECPA .............................18

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IV.

CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................21

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TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
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Cases

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Am. Standard Inc. v. Pfizer, Inc., 828 F.2d 734 (Fed. Cir. 1987)............................................10, 15

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Compaq Computer Corp. v. Packard Bell Elecs, Inc., 163 F.R.D. 329
(N.D. Cal. 1995) ..............................................................................................................9, 12, 15

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Crowley v. Cyberspace Corp., 166 F. Supp. 2d 1263 (N.D. Cal. 2001) .......................................19
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Cusumano v. Microsoft Corp., 162 F.3d 708 (1st Cir. 1998).........................................................16
Dart Indus. Co. v. Westwood Chem. Co., 649 F.2d 646 (9th Cir. 1980)...................................4, 15
Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993) .........................................................6

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DIRECTV Inc. v. Trone, 209 F.R.D. 455 (C.D. Cal. 2002).................................................3, 10, 14

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Echostar Commc'n Corp. v. News Corp. Ltd., 180 F.R.D. 391 (D. Colo.
1998)............................................................................................................................3, 9, 10, 15

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Heidelberg Americas, Inc. v. Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho, Ltd., 333 F.3d 38
(1st Cir. 2003)...............................................................................................................................9
In re Jetblue Airways Corp. Privacy Litigation, 379 F. Supp. 2d 299
(E.D.N.Y. 2005) ........................................................................................................................19

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In re Surety Ass'n of America, 388 F.2d 412 (2d Cir. 1967) ...........................................................9

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Instituform Technologies, Inc. v. CAT Contracting, Inc., 168 F.R.D. 630
(N.D. Ill. 1996) ..........................................................................................................................16

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Katz v. Batavia Marine & Sporting Supplies, Inc., 984 F.2d 422 (Fed. Cir.
1993)......................................................................................................................................9, 10

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Mattel Inc. v. Walking Mountain Prods., 353 F.3d 792 (9th Cir. 2003) ...............................3, 4, 15

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Moon v. SCP Pool Corp., 2005 WL 3526513 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 7, 2005).........................................3

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Nicholas J. Murlas Living Trust v. Mobil Oil Corp., 1995 WL 124186
(N.D. Ill. March 20, 1995)...........................................................................................................5

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Palumbo v. Schulman, 1998 WL 436367 (S.D.N.Y. July 27, 1998).........................................9, 17

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Premium Serv. Corp. v. Sperry & Hutchinson Co., 511 F.2d 225 (9th Cir.
1975)......................................................................................................................................3, 17

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Robin Singh Educ. Servs., Inc. v. Excel Test Prep, 2004 WL 2554454
(N.D. Cal. Nov. 9, 2004) .........................................................................................................5, 9
Travelers Indem. Co. v. Metro Life Ins. Co., 228 F.R.D. 111 (D. Conn.
2005)..........................................................................................................................................15

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Truswal Sys. Corp. v. Hydro-Air Engineering, Inc., 813 F.2d 1207 (Fed.
Cir. 1987)...................................................................................................................................12

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U. S. ex rel. Schwartz v. TRW, Inc., 211 F.R.D. 388 (C.D. Cal. 2002) ...........................................4

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Statutes

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18 U.S.C. § 2510(14).....................................................................................................................20
18 U.S.C. § 2510(15).....................................................................................................................19
18 U.S.C. § 2703 ...........................................................................................................................19

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18 U.S.C. § 2703(b)(2) ..................................................................................................................20
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18 U.S.C. § 2711(2).......................................................................................................................20
18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2712 ................................................................................................................18

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Regulations and Rules

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Fed. R. Civ. P. 45.........................................................................................................................4, 5

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Fed. R. Evid. 702 .............................................................................................................................6

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Other Authorities
Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in
Criminal Investigations, United States Dep't of Justice, Computer
Crime and Intellectual Property Section Criminal Division (July 2002) ..................................18

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Technology: Searching for Searches, Newsweek, Jan. 30, 2006 .................................................18

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I.

INTRODUCTION

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Google users trust that when they enter a search query into a Google search box, not only
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will they receive back the most relevant results, but that Google will keep private whatever
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information users communicate absent a compelling reason. The Government's demand for
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disclosure of untold millions of search queries submitted by Google users and for production of a
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million Web page addresses or "URLs" randomly selected from Google's proprietary index would
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undermine that trust, unnecessarily burden Google, and do nothing to further the Government's
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case in the underlying action.
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Fortunately, the Court has multiple, independent bases to reject the Government's Motion.
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First, the Government's presentation falls woefully short of demonstrating that the requested
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information will lead to admissible evidence. This burden is unquestionably the Government's.
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Rather than meet it, the Government concedes that Google's search queries and URLs are not
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evidence to be used at trial at all. Instead, the Government says, the data will be "useful" to its
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purported expert in developing some theory to support the Government's notion that a law banning
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materials that are harmful to minors on the Internet will be more effective than a technology filter
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in eliminating it.
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Google is, of course, concerned about the availability of materials harmful to minors on the
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Internet, but that shared concern does not render the Government's request acceptable or relevant.
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In truth, the data demanded tells the Government absolutely nothing about either filters or the
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effectiveness of laws. Nor will the data tell the Government whether a given search would return
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any particular URL. Nor will the URL returned, by its name alone, tell the Government whether
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that URL was a site that contained material harmful to minors.
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But, the Government's request would tell the world much about Google's trade secrets and
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proprietary systems. This is the second independent ground upon which the Court should reject
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the subpoena. Google avidly protects every aspect of its search technology from disclosure, even
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including the total number of searches conducted on any given day. Moreover, to know whether a
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given search would return any given URL in Google's database, a complete knowledge of how
Google's search engine operates is required, inevitably further entangling Google in the underlying
litigation. No assurances, no promises, and no confidentiality order, can protect Google's trade
secrets from scrutiny and disclosure during the course of discovery and trial.
Finally, the Government's subpoena imposes an undue burden on Google without a
sufficiently countervailing justification. Perhaps the Government can be forgiven its glib rejection
of this point because it is unfamiliar with Google's system architecture. If the Government had
that familiarity, it would know that its request will take over a week of engineer time to complete.
But the burden is not mechanical alone; it includes legal risks as well. A real question exists as to
whether the Government must follow the mandatory procedures of the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act in seeking Google users' search queries. The privacy of Google
users matters, and Google has promised to disclose information to the Government only as
required by law. Google should not bear the burden of guessing what the law requires in regard to
disclosure of search queries to the Government, or the risk of guessing wrong.
For all of these reasons, the Court must reject the Government's Motion.

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II.

BACKGROUND

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Google was served with the Subpoena on or about August 25, 2005, demanding disclosure
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of two full months' worth of search queries entered into Google's search engine by Google's users
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and production of all URLs in Google's index that could possibly be found by a search query using
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Google's search engine at www.google.com. To put this request in context, Google provides the
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world's most-used search engine at www.google.com. A search engine provides the capability for
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users to submit text queries to find materials that may be available from an index of World Wide
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Web addresses or URLs collected by the search engine provider. Declaration of Matt Cutts, ¶ 6
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("Cutts Decl."). Google treats the total number of, and other information about, the search queries
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it receives as highly confidential. Google treats its methods of searching its index and returning
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URLs similarly. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 26-27.
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By way of background, the Web is composed of billions of publicly accessible Web sites
from around the world and other information sources that Web browsers can access. Each of these
sites or other online documents, pages or resources, has an address known as a "URL," short for
Uniform Resource Locator. URLs, technically speaking, are comprised of a protocol (e.g., http://)
and an Internet Protocol address or domain name. Cutts Decl., ¶ 3. A URL name does not tell the
viewer what content may be available on the Web page itself. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 20-21.

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Google timely objected, both in writing and in telephone discussions with the
Government's counsel, as the Government acknowledges, to the over-breadth of the request, the
seeming irrelevance of the data sought to the claims of the Government, the potential for
compromise of Google's trade secrets, and the impact on the privacy of Google search users.
Motion, passim. While negotiations with the Government narrowed the scope of the Subpoena,
the Government apparently could not, or would not, answer Google's concerns. Declaration of
Ashok Ramani, ¶¶ 3-6 ("Ramani Decl."). The Government then moved to compel Google's
compliance.

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III.

ARGUMENT

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A.

The Standard for Compelling a Third Party to Respond to a Subpoena
A court must quash or modify a subpoena issued to a non-party if it subjects that person to

undue burden. Mattel Inc. v. Walking Mountain Prods., 353 F.3d 792, 813 (9th Cir. 2003). In
analyzing burden, a court must balance the needs of the requesting party with the burden imposed
on the non-party. See Premium Serv. Corp. v. Sperry & Hutchinson Co., 511 F.2d 225 (9th Cir.
1975). In performing this balancing test, a court must consider, inter alia, the relevance of the
requested information to the claim or defenses in the underlying action. Moon v. SCP Pool Corp.,
2005 WL 3526513, at *4 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 7, 2005); see DIRECTV Inc. v. Trone, 209 F.R.D. 455,
460 (C.D. Cal. 2002).
Unequivocally, the Government bears the burden of establishing relevance. Echostar
Commc'n Corp. v. News Corp. Ltd., 180 F.R.D. 391, 394 (D. Colo. 1998). The burden of
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establishing relevance is heavier when the disclosure would reveal the protected trade secrets of a
non-party. Id. In such cases, the Government must show that it has a "substantial need" for the
discovery which "cannot be otherwise met without undue hardship." Id. (internal quotations and
citations omitted).
Even then, the status of a person as a non-party weighs heavily against disclosure. Rule 45
"was intended to provide 'appropriate protection for the intellectual property of [a] non-party
witness.'" Mattel, 353 F.3d at 814 (citations omitted). "The word 'non-party' serves as a constant
reminder of the reasons for the limitations that characterize 'third-party' discovery." Dart Indus.
Co. v. Westwood Chem. Co., 649 F.2d 646, 649 (9th Cir. 1980) (internal quotations omitted).
The Government, of course, has told the Court none of this. Instead, it relies on a
talismanic incantation that the standard of relevance is met "so long as [the request] is reasonably
calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence." Motion, at 5 (citing U. S. ex rel.
Schwartz v. TRW, Inc., 211 F.R.D. 388, 392 (C.D. Cal. 2002)). Remarkably, the case the
Government cites stands for exactly the opposite proposition. Rather than holding that the
relevance standard is met in third party discovery cases with the mere assertion of need, Schwartz
actually granted the motion of the third party – there, the Government itself – to withhold
information on the ground of privilege if the court found the underlying information to be
privileged. 211 F.R.D. at 393. The case imposed a heavy burden on the party seeking discovery
from the third party to make "a strong showing of necessity" for the information. Id. (internal
quotations and citations omitted).
Here the Government fails to show that the data it seeks actually will lead to anything
admissible in the underlying case because the data simply is not relevant to any claim or defense.
Having not crossed that initial threshold, it almost goes unsaid that they have not met the heavier
burden they bear to force the disclosure of Google's confidential information. In the end, their
purported need pales in comparison to the burden imposed on Google in meeting the request.

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The Government Fails to Establish That the Data Will Lead to Admissible
Evidence
The Government's rationale for its Motion is two-fold:
(1) the production of [a week of search queries] would permit the
Government to evaluate whether COPA or filtering software is more
effective in restricting access to harmful-to-minor materials in response to
searches as they are actually performed by present day users of the Internet
(Motion, at 6); and
(2) the production of [randomly selected URLs] will permit the
Government to review a sample set of Internet addresses available to be
retrieved from the search engines operated by Google and by other entities.
From that set, the Government will be able to review the sample to draw
conclusions as to the prevalence of harmful-to-minor material on the
portion of the Internet that is retrievable through search engines. Motion,
at 8.

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This, the Government asserts, is enough to pass Rule 45 muster and to overcome all of Google's

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objections to production. It is not.

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The Government's showing is mere argument, not the required proof of the demanded

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data's relevance to their claim. What the Government has failed to understand or admit is that the

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data it seeks from Google has no conceivable use in furthering either of the Government's points.

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In the absence of a coherent theory of relevance, the Government's demand must be denied. See

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Robin Singh Educ. Servs., Inc. v. Excel Test Prep, 2004 WL 2554454, at *2 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 9,

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2004) (denying motion to compel since, inter alia, "[o]ther than the naked statement of this

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argument, Plaintiff does not even attempt to show how either of these two bases for relevance in

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fact obtain"); Nicholas J. Murlas Living Trust v. Mobil Oil Corp., 1995 WL 124186, at *5 (N.D.

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Ill. March 20, 1995) (denying motion to compel in part since, inter alia, plaintiff failed to

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articulate a coherent theory which would explain how the requested information was relevant).

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We explain why the Government's theory is wrong below, supported throughout with
reference to the Declaration of Matt Cutts, a Senior Engineer with Google who has direct
knowledge of Google's search engine operation.1

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Search Queries

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The Government apparently wants to evaluate the effectiveness of filters by evaluating
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"searches as they are actually performed by present day users of the Internet" against a database of
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available URLs. Motion, at 6, 8; Declaration of Phillip Stark, ¶¶ 3-4 ("Stark Decl."). Set aside
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that such a theoretical comparison could be done without regard to any of Google's data, the query
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data requested by the Government has no easily computed correlation to how Google would
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generate a search result based on that same data. This is because when a user enters a search,
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Google runs a system of proprietary and confidential methodologies and algorithms that allow
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Google to crawl and index a portion of the Web, and return the most relevant search results to
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users. Cutts Decl., ¶ 9. These crawling, collecting, and sorting techniques are Google trade
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secrets. It is therefore impossible for Professor Stark to develop a test or study from the requested
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Google queries that would reflect realistic search results, without knowing how Google itself
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would produce a search result based on that query.
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Similarly, Google users can and do modify their environment to generate certain types of
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search results. For example, users may employ Google's SafeSearch pornography filter to limit
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results. They may use Google's advanced search programs to deliver personalized or customized
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search results as well. Cutts Decl., ¶ 10. Therefore, the same query will generate different search
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The court should view the Cutts Declaration as standing in strong contrast to the
Government's declarant, Professor Phillip Stark, a statistician who apparently has been hired to
produce a study to support the Government's contentions. The Stark Declaration is vague,
cursory, and uninformed about the operation of Google's search engine. In any event, Professor
Stark's opinion ought to be viewed with some scrutiny. Although positioned as the Government's
expert, he has not yet been qualified as a reliable expert by the Pennsylvania court trying the
underlying case pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 702 or Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms.,
Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993). The Pennsylvania court has thus not yet determined whether Professor
Stark's testimony is reliable and of any assistance to the trier of fact. Id.
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results at different computers, depending on the user's preferences, again making it impossible for
the Government to develop a test or study that reflects the results from a given search query.
Furthermore, the Government says that its requested search queries will assist it to
understand "the search behavior of current web users." Stark Decl., ¶ 4. This statement is so
uninformed as to be nonsensical. Search queries run on Google's databases come from such a
wide variety of sources that Google's query data, stripped of personally identifying information,
will not reveal whether the search query was run by a minor or adult, human or non-human, or on
behalf of an individual or business. No conclusion can accurately be drawn from this data about
individual behavior. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 11 – 15.
Indeed, the search query data demanded by the Government would include all "real"
queries entered by individual users and automatic queries generated by computer programs called
"bots." Identifying and removing all bot and other non-human generated queries will be difficult –
if not impossible – for most researchers. Retaining the bot inquiries, which can generate many
times the number of searches as an individual, will skew any data set beyond usability and will
generate search results that are meaningless if not misleading. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 12-13.
In addition to bot queries, an individual may run hundreds of queries on Google, not for
routine search purposes, but to check the ranking of a website or to deliberately skew Google's
query log. Some Google users have actually deliberately sent pornography queries to Google in
reaction to the Government's Subpoena. One striking example is that of an individual who wrote a
feature for the Firefox (Mozilla) web browser that will send a random pornography query to
Google whenever a user enters a query, as if the pornography query had also been entered by the
user. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 14-15, Ex. A.
Finally, Google's system is not static. Algorithms regularly change. The identical search
query submitted today may yield a different result than the identical search conducted yesterday.
In no meaningful way can it be said that a past week's worth of search queries will yield URL
responses as performed by "present day users of the Internet." Motion, at 6. Past searches tell the

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Government nothing about URLs available from those searches, now or in the future. Cutts Decl.,
¶ 16.

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2.

URLs

4
As Mr. Cutts' Declaration elaborates, there is no superficial correlation between (a) the
5
presence of a URL in Google's index and (b) the likelihood of that URL being returned as part of a
6
search result, or being accurately indicative of the Web page to which it links. Google only
7
attempts to crawl the "best of the Web" to create a useful repository of Web pages. Google then
8
implements a structure of complex systems and policies that build on each other for scoring,
9
ranking, returning, or blocking URLs in response to queries. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 17-19, 22. In short,
10
unless you know how Google works, you cannot possibly know what Google will return in
11
response to any query. Any assumption to the contrary would be inadmissible speculation.
12
In addition, the Government will not be able to ascertain the content of a Web page from
13
its descriptive URL name. A Web site's name that suggests potential harmful material may be
14
benign. Conversely, a URL that seems innocent may actually return pornographic material. The
15
classic example is www.whitehouse.com, which was a pornography site. Here, the adage "you
16
can't judge a book by its cover" applies. A URL such as
17
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/prontline/shows/porn/etc/links.html contains the word "porn" but
18
actually provides links to anti-pornography organizations. Cutts Decl., ¶ 20.
19
Web page content also changes, or can be changed, every day or more frequently. For
20
example, unscrupulous Web site owners will program their Web page to show innocent content to
21
Google, in order to improve the ranking of their pages, only to swap out that content later to
22
display pornographic material. To ensure the relevancy of its search results, Google puts
23
significant effort into finding and removing those documents, but the process demonstrates the
24
point that the URL itself is not indicative of what content will be displayed in response to a search.
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Cutts Decl., ¶ 21.
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3.

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As Google has explained to the Government for months, search queries and randomly-

The Data Is Not Useful for Any Study

3

selected URLs from Google's index not only have no correlative value in a vacuum, but any study

4

conducted without understanding Google's system will produce misleading and grossly inaccurate

5

test results, and as a consequence, will not lead to admissible evidence. The Government has

6

made no showing in its Motion of relevance and instead has posited only the goals of its proposed

7

study. But if used as the Government suggests, the requested data would so distort Professor

8

Stark's analysis as to render it useless and misleading. This does not merely go to the weight to be

9

accorded the opinion by the trier of fact; it goes to the very relevance of the data requested to

10

support the opinion in the first instance. Accordingly, the Motion should be denied. See Robin

11

Singh, 2004 WL 2554454 at *2; Heidelberg Americas, Inc. v. Tokyo Kikai Seisakusho, Ltd., 333

12

F.3d 38, 41 (1st Cir. 2003) (affirming that subpoena cast too wide a net when "some considerable

13

question exist[ed] as to how discovery of the materials would lead to . . . other discoverable

14

materials"); Palumbo v. Schulman, 1998 WL 436367, at *5 (S.D.N.Y. July 27, 1998)

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(acknowledging unlikelihood that non-parties' documents alone would be relevant to the

16

underlying issues); In re Surety Ass'n of America, 388 F.2d 412, 414 (2d Cir. 1967) (affirming trial

17

court's denial of motion to compel where party sought documents regarding types of bonds outside

18

of the one at issue).

19

C.

The Subpoena Demands Google's Valuable Trade Secrets

20

The Government seeks compelled disclosure of Google's valuable trade secrets and highly

21

confidential commercial information that, if even inadvertently revealed, would seriously damage

22

Google. The burden rests on the Government to show that it has a "substantial need" for the

23

information and that the information cannot be otherwise obtained without "undue hardship."

24

Compaq Computer Corp. v. Packard Bell Elecs, Inc., 163 F.R.D. 329, 338 (N.D. Cal. 1995);

25

Echostar, 180 F.R.D. at 394; Katz v. Batavia Marine & Sporting Supplies, Inc., 984 F.2d 422, 425

26

(Fed. Cir. 1993) (affirming district court's quashing of subpoena that sought confidential

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information and did not show a need for the broad range of information requested). If the
Government shows such "substantial need" and absence of alternatives – and it cannot – the Court
must balance the Government's need with the injury that would result to Google. DIRECTV, 209
F.R.D. at 459; Echostar, 180 F.R.D. at 394. The balance here plainly favors Google.

5
1.
6
7

The Demanded Data Contains Valuable Trade Secrets and
Confidential Commercial Information

The Government has not and cannot dispute that Google has devoted enormous amounts of

8

time and expense to protect its valuable trade secrets and confidential commercial information.

9

Google's query and URL data is as secret as any data in the company and must be protected.

10

DIRECTV, 209 F.R.D. at 460; see also Katz, 984 F.2d at 424 (citing Am. Standard Inc. v. Pfizer,

11

Inc., 828 F.2d 734, 740 (Fed. Cir. 1987) (product formulas, product fabrication and marketing

12

plans are trade secrets and should not be subject to discovery)).

13

The Government acknowledges that Google asserts information about search queries is a

14

trade secret, but says Google identified no reason why it would suffer harm from compelled

15

disclosure. Motion, at 7. But that harm is plain, because a week's worth of query data reflects a

16

sizable number of queries. Taken together (or even in significant groupings), those queries reflect

17

a wealth of information about aspects of Google's business that, if revealed, would injure Google's

18

competitive position. An analysis of Google's query data would reveal proprietary information

19

such as the number of queries that Google can or does process, its capabilities of processing

20

certain lengths and types of queries, its market share in the United States and other countries, and

21

even the demographics of its users. Cutts Decl., ¶ 26. Competition with Google is fierce.

22

Google's competitors could use Google's confidential query data to manipulate their search

23

engines to accommodate Web users and run queries similar to Google's.

24

Like queries, from even a sample of URLs that Google has indexed, one could estimate,

25

among other things, the size of Google's index; how deeply Google crawls in different countries or

26

languages; and the ability of Google's crawl metrics to measure the reputation of pages or

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domains. Information about how Google crawls, or visits the different sub-pages on a website to
collect the best URLs, is essential to Google's success. Google has developed its methods and
technologies over many years and at considerable expense. Cutts Decl., ¶ 27. If Google's
competitors were to access this information, they could conform their size and crawling metrics to
Google's, thereby generating search results that mimic Google's and competing more effectively
with Google.
Google takes extraordinary measures to protect its trade secrets and confidential
commercial information.2 Both Mr. Cutts and Marty Lev, Google's Director of Safety and
Security, offer numerous examples in their Declarations that illustrate the measures of protection
ranging from Google's facilities and computer systems to its employees. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 29-35;
Declaration of Marty Lev, passim. For example, Google protects its valuable trade secrets at the
most basic level by not disclosing the number of computers it maintains to run its search engine,
the nature of the search strings typed by users, the type of browsers its users rely upon, the mix of
languages that its search engine handles, or how many queries it processes in any given day. Cutts
Decl., ¶¶ 24, 26. Access to Google's internal systems, and, in particular, Google's query log and
index are each restricted to a small group of trusted employees with special clearance based, in
part, on the length of their employment and demonstrated need for access. Cutts Decl., ¶ 32.
The very fact that the Government is so uninformed about the value of search and URL
information and so dismissive of Google's interest in protecting it speaks volumes about why the
Court should protect Google from this compelled disclosure. The Government's cavalier attitude
undermines any credibility in the assertion it later makes that it can or will protect Google against

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Google routinely receives and refuses requests from researchers and analysts for search
query and URL data. For example, Google has denied researchers query logs to protect both its
trade secrets and confidential commercial information, and to protect the privacy of its users.
Cutts Decl., ¶ 35. Ironically, almost six years ago, Professor Stark obtained a small sample of
URLs and queries from a particular Google engineer for what he described as a research project.
Ramani Decl., ¶ 7. Unequivocally, it is and has been Google's policy for years not to share any
such information with third parties. Ramani Decl., ¶ 7.
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loss or further disclosure of the information – a promise that is hollow in the context of litigation
in any event.

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2.

Disclosure of Google's Trade Secrets Is A Significant Possibility

4
Wide dissemination or outright disclosure of Google trade secrets is inevitable if the Court
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grants the Government's Motion, because Google necessarily will become entangled in the
6
underlying litigation.
7
Disclosure to the Government, and Professor Stark, is only half the story. Once the
8
Government tries to support its proposed theory with Google's query and URL data, the ACLU
9
will question the theory's validity and supporting data. The ACLU has issued a subpoena to AOL
10
apparently doing just that in regard to AOL's production in response to a similar Government
11
subpoena. Ramani Decl., ¶ 8. This places Google – an unwilling non-party – in the witness chair,
12
and exposes Google's intellectual property to cross-examination in open court by the ACLU, its
13
counsel, experts, and consultants. No protective order can safeguard Google from the eventual
14
eroding of the secrecy of Google's operations and of its competitive advantages as a result of the
15
sharing of its information through or in litigation. At the very least, Google should not have to
16
rely on a Protective Order that was signed by the parties before Google was ever issued the
17
Subpoena.3 Google neither agreed to nor negotiated the Protective Order and therefore had no
18
control over its terms.
19
Moreover, Google has no control over whom the parties may identify as expert witnesses
20
or consultants that, according to the Protective Order, will have access to confidential information.
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3

Unlike the Protective Order in Compaq, which prohibited access by the parties'
employees, agents, and even in-house counsel, the Protective Order signed by the Government and
the ACLU gives the parties' employees, witnesses, consultants and counsel access to the
information and in no way protects Google's proprietary trade secrets and confidential commercial
information. See Compaq, 163 F.R.D. at 339. Further, the Government's reliance on Truswal Sys.
Corp. v. Hydro-Air Engineering, Inc., 813 F.2d 1207, 1211(Fed. Cir. 1987) for the assumption that
counsel will not violate the terms of a protective order is misplaced, as Google's concern reaches
farther than mere exposure to parties' counsel.
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For example, a party may hire a consultant with expertise on search engines who likely was or will
be employed by a Google competitor. Even the Government acknowledges in the little it has
disclosed about Professor Stark's study that Google's data will be viewed in "accounting for the
potential of any variations in the types of queries that are entered into different search engines."4
Motion, at 6. The Protective Order offers no shield at all against the array of consultants the
parties can hire who will rely on and testify as to Google's trade secrets and confidential
commercial information. The parties have not even yet designated their experts and consultants;
therefore it is impossible for Google to know who will have access to its information.
Disclosure to Professor Stark is a perfect example of the significant threat of harm to
Google. Professor Stark's pursuits include consulting in the private sector. Ramani Decl., Ex. A.
One example that deeply concerns Google is his involvement with Cogit.com regarding targeted
Web advertising. Cogit describes itself as a Web analyst that "provides insight about your
customers" and "reveals facts about how they find your site, how they interact with it, and how
they leave," available at http://www.cogit.com/. Professor Stark's involvement with Cogit and
similarly situated companies may pose a serious threat to the protection of Google's trade secrets
and confidential commercial information.

17
3.

The Government Has Not Shown a Substantial Need

18
The Government asserts that Google's query and URL data "would be of value to the
19
Government in its development of its overall sample of queries" because Google has the largest
20
market share of the Web search Market. Motion, at 6. But this is no showing of "substantial
21
need" at all. Professor Stark does not say the data is "essential," that there is no alternative to it, or
22
that the study he proposes will not stand without it; nor does he explain why a study based on
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4

Of course, variations in search queries entered are meaningless. What matters are the
URLs returned in response to a given search. As noted above, Professor Stark cannot surmise
what URL will be returned without knowing how the particular search engine works. Certainly,
any comparison of queries run, to be relevant, would have to use identical terms, would depend on
the entity running it (e.g., bot or human), the origin of the query, and other variables that
statistically or otherwise render the exercise one of futility. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 8-16.
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samples of randomly selected data must include Google's data to be valid. This is because none of
these points is true.

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Google's data cannot be essential, because the Government did not demand data from Ask
Jeeves, one of the four major U.S. search engines. Professor Stark does not explain the lack of
need for that data because he has not in fact disclosed how any data will be used in his putative
study. Conversely, Google's data cannot be essential because the Government itself has narrowed
its request to Google to a smaller sample. If a smaller sample is adequate from Google, and the
Government hasn't asked for data from Ask Jeeves, the Government should explain why it doesn't
have enough data from the search engines that already have provided millions of search queries
and URL data in response to this very Government subpoena. Stark Decl., ¶ 8. There is no
showing of necessity because there is no explanation of the study itself or how a sampling of data
proves any fact reliably. In the absence of such a showing of necessity, the Motion should be
denied. See DIRECTV, 209 F.R.D. at 460 (arguments not supported by specific facts or sufficient
explanation of why defendants need plaintiff's proprietary information are insufficient to show
need).
Nor can there be "substantial need" where, as Google has told the Government, and it
acknowledges as much, there are better alternative sources of information. Motion, at 9. The
Government concludes without explanation that those sources are "incomplete" and the "most
readily available source for those materials are [sic] the operators of search engines themselves."
Id. On the first point, the Government is simply wrong; on the second point, it chooses its own
convenience over the burden it imposes on Google.
Mr. Cutts presents numerous examples of alternative sources for queries and URLs in his
Declaration. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 36 – 38. Google describes a few of these alternatives here.
Metasearch engines Dogpile and MetaCrawler each provide services that allow anyone to view
lists of queries through their search services, "SearchSpy" and "Metaspy" respectively.
SearchSpy, available at: http://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/searchspy/, allows one to choose to

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view either filtered or unfiltered search queries. With a simple click of a mouse, a user may view
search queries as they are run in real time. Metaspy, available at
http://www.metacrawler.com/info.metac/searchspy, offers the same feature. Ask Jeeves' "Ask
Jeeves Take A Peek" service, available at http://www.ask.com/docs/peek/, lists recently run
queries and refreshes automatically twice a minute.

6
7
8
9
10
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Regarding URLs, the data the Government claims to seek is readily and abundantly
available from Alexa.com ("Alexa"). Alexa is specifically intended for "[r]esearchers who wish to
tackle problems related to Web content," allowing users to process over four billion URLs and
over 1.7 billion full-text documents. A researcher or developer could use this system to test
software code, including pornography filters, across much more than the one million URLs sought
here, and to test code over the full text of documents. Cutts Decl., ¶ 37, Ex. B.

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The query and URL data sought by the Government is available from other sources in form
and content more suited to its proposed study, for whatever value there may be in the enterprise.
Whatever else that can be said, there is no necessity when similar data is available from other
sources. Compare Compaq, 163 F.R.D. at 338 (substantial need for a portion of requested
information concerning industry practice was established when information could be obtained by
no source other than third party industry member) with Am. Standard, 828 F.2d at 743 (need not
established when information was publicly available); Travelers Indem. Co. v. Metro Life Ins. Co.,
228 F.R.D. 111, 114 (D. Conn. 2005) (granting motion to quash subpoena served on non-party
since, inter alia, requested information was otherwise available).

21
D.

The Subpoena Imposes an Undue Burden on Google

22
A court must quash or modify a subpoena issued to a non-party if it subjects a person to an
23
undue burden. Mattel, 353 F.3d at 813; see also Echostar, 180 F.R.D. at 394; Travelers Indem.
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Co. v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 228 F.R.D. 111 (D. Conn. 2005). Google's non-party status weighs
25
heavily against the Government in a burden analysis. See Dart, 649 F.2d at 649; Travelers, 228
26
F.R.D. at 113 ("courts also give special weight to the burden on non-parties of producing
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documents to parties involved in litigation") (citing Cusumano v. Microsoft Corp., 162 F.3d 708,
717 (1st Cir. 1998)).

3
4

1.

The Time and Resources Required to Pull the Requested Information
Would Be Significant

5

The Government asserts that Google's burden of complying with the Subpoena is

6

"minimal," "not complicated," and "straight-forward." Motion, at 7, 9. That other search engines

7

have complied with the Subpoena and not reported difficulties has nothing to do with Google or

8

its burden. Contrary to the Government's dismissive statements, the Subpoena would require

9

significant time and resources, may hinder Google's basic operations, and may affect Google's

10
11

performance.
First and most basically: Google does not maintain query or URL data in the ordinary

12

course of business in the format requested by the Government. For this reason alone, the

13

Government's Motion should be denied. Instituform Technologies, Inc. v. CAT Contracting, Inc.,

14

168 F.R.D. 630, 633 (N.D. Ill. 1996) ("Rule 45 does not contemplate that a nonparty will be

15

forced to create documents that do not exist"). Nor is there a program that could simply gather the

16

requested data. Therefore, Google would have to create new code to format and extract the query

17

and URL data from its many computer banks. Pulling each type of data would require multiple

18

teams of Google engineers, diverted from their normal job responsibilities, to research, develop,

19

write, implement, test, fix and execute new computer code. Finally, the selected data must be

20

extracted and copied into a format that can be provided to the Government. In total, the process of

21

gathering the queries and URLs would likely consume up to eight full-time days of engineering

22

time. This time, of course, would have to be covered by other engineers within Google. Cutts

23

Decl., ¶¶ 39-42.

24

Even if the Government were to pay Google for its engineers' time, executing the searches

25

required by the Government's requests would command extended hours of processing time on

26

Google's computers. Running these programs above and beyond the normal demand on Google's

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computers is likely to cause slowdowns, interference and even interruption of Google's normally
efficient flow of operations and service, resulting in lower quality of service to users of Google's
search engine and to Google's advertisers. Cutts Decl., ¶ 42.
While again we don't know because Professor Stark hasn't said, if it is the Government's
intention to use the Google data to then run the same search queries on Google.com, this would
put a further enormous and undue burden upon Google. To run the search queries would
essentially add a week's worth of searches on Google.com. If the Government were to do this
within a short period of time, it would put an enormous strain on Google's computer systems.
Cutts Decl., ¶ 23. See, e.g., Palumbo, 1998 WL 436367, at *5 (finding that, since non-party data
could not be viewed in isolation, it would be unduly burdensome to ask defendants to examine
additional information).

12
2.

The Government's Offer to Collaborate Is Inadequate and Unrealistic

13
Suggesting that creating some multi-stage sample makes it easy on Google, the
14
Government offers that it and Professor Stark are "willing to work with Google to specify a multi15
stage sample of the queries" and URLs to reduce "any burden" on Google. Motion, at 7; Stark
16
Decl., ¶ 3. True to form, neither the Government nor Stark proposes a method by which to specify
17
such samples or how to determine randomness. Defining "random" could involve days or months
18
of negotiations on how to determine selection, which could involve months of research and weeks
19
of negotiations on a matter that is currently debated in journals and among authorities. The
20
Government's conclusory statements of the willingness to collaborate with Google are unrealistic
21
and in no way reduce the potential burdens on Google; it further entangles Google in the litigation,
22
further exposes it to pre-trial deposition and cross-examination at trial, and makes it an unwilling
23
witness and participant in the development of an expert's theory. This the law does not require nor
24
should the Court set in motion by passing on the Government's Motion. Premium Serv., 511 F.2d
25
at 229 (plaintiff's offer to reduce burden by sifting through non-parties' documents was
26
unrealistic).
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The Production of the Requested Data Will Result in a Chilling Effect
on Google's Business and User Trust

If Google is forced to compromise its privacy principles and produce to the Government
on such a flimsy request, its search query and URL data, Google will, without a doubt, suffer a
loss of trust among users. Google's success can be attributed in large part to the high volume of
Web users attracted to Google.com every day. The privacy and anonymity of the service are
major factors in the attraction of users – that is, users trust Google to do right by their personal
information and to provide them with the best search results. If users believe that the text of their
search queries into Google's search engine may become public knowledge, it only logically
follows that they will be less likely to use the service.
This is no minor fear because search query content can disclose identities and personally
identifiable information such as user-initiated searches for their own social security or credit card
numbers, or their mistakenly pasted but revealing text. Cutts Decl., ¶¶ 24-25. What will the
Government do with this information? While the Protective Order says it should do nothing, at
least one Department of Justice spokesperson has said: "I'm assuming that if something raised
alarms, we would hand it over to the proper [authorities]." Technology: Searching for Searches,
Newsweek, Jan. 30, 2006; Ramani Decl., Ex. B.
Because this chilling effect on Google's business is potentially severe, the Motion should
be denied.
4.

Google Should Not Bear the Burden of Responding to Potentially
Inadequate Process Based on ECPA

In addition to the compelling arguments already presented, there remains a substantial

22

question as to whether the Government's request for search queries invokes the mandatory

23

procedures of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act ("ECPA"), 18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-2712.

24

ECPA "creates statutory privacy rights for customers and subscribers of computer network service

25

providers." Searching and Seizing Computers and Obtaining Electronic Evidence in Criminal

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Investigations, United States Dep't of Justice, Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section

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Criminal Division (July 2002), available at www.Cybercrime.gov/s&smanual2002.htm. The
procedures defined in ECPA for governmental access to stored electronic communications and
associated transactional data are not discretionary. If search queries are covered by the statute –
and there is good reason to believe they are – the Government must follow the mandatory
procedures of either obtaining a court Order or giving notice to every Google user and issuing a
subpoena.
The privacy of Google users matters and Google has promised to disclose information to
the Government only as required by law or where some imminent harm is threatened. Ramani
Decl., Ex. C. Google should not bear the burden and the risk of having to decide whether ECPA
applies to this request.
Google provides a service to the public that gives users the ability to send electronic
communications in the form of search queries and to receive electronic communications in the
form of search results. Google users may initiate recurring searches with results sent to their
Google GMail or other email accounts at user – defined intervals. Under ECPA, any service that
"provides to users thereof the ability to send or receive wire or electronic communications" is an
electronic communication service ("ECS").5 18 U.S.C. § 2510(15). An ECS cannot disclose the
content of such communications absent strict government compliance with the procedures outlined
in Section 2703. Under those procedures, a mere subpoena for this information is not enough.
Further, ECPA places similar restrictions on the disclosure of stored communications to
the government by providers of remote computing services. A "'remote computing service' means
the provision to the public of computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic

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Some courts have held that a mere "user" of an ECS provided by another is not itself an
ECS. See Crowley v. Cyberspace Corp., 166 F. Supp. 2d 1263, 1270 (N.D. Cal. 2001) (holding
that Amazon.com is not an ECS because it did not provide users the ability to communicate); see
also In re Jetblue Airways Corp. Privacy Litigation, 379 F. Supp. 2d 299, 310 (E.D.N.Y. 2005)
(airline reservation website is not an ECS). Google is no mere user of another's ECS of course. It
provides the very communications capability at issue here – search – and the capability to receive
to receive or direct receipt to oneself or others of search results.
- 19 GOOGLE'S OPPOSITION TO
[41063-0026/BY060480.058]
THE GOVERNMENT'S MOTION TO COMPEL
CASE NO. 5:06-MC-80006-JW

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communications system." 18 U.S.C. § 2711(2). An "electronic communications system" is any
facility used "for the transmission of wire or electronic communications, and any computer
facilities or related electronic equipment for the electronic storage of such communications." 18
U.S.C. § 2510(14).
ECPA applies to a remote computing service if the communication that is held or
maintained on that service is –
(A) on behalf of, and received by means of electronic transmission from (or
created by means of computer processing of communications received by
means of electronic transmission from), a subscriber or customer of such
remote computing service; and
(B) solely for the purpose of providing storage or computer processing
services to such subscriber or customer, if the provider is not authorized to
access the contents of any such communications for purposes of providing
any services other than storage or computer processing.
18 U.S.C. § 2703(b)(2).
Google users routinely store or establish repeat search queries. Google processes search
requests as directed by, and for, its users who in turn retrieve the search results of their choosing
from Google's index, or Google sends the results by email or text messages to individuals, to
wireless phones or other designated mobile devices. Cutts Decl., ¶ 6. Said in plain language,
users rely on the remote computer facilities of Google to process and store their search requests
and to retrieve by electronic transmission their search results.
That the Government has asked Google to remove any personally identifiable information
from the content of the search queries is of no moment. ECPA makes no exception for
anonymous or anonymized content. Surely, the Government does not mean to suggest that it
could obtain millions of emails stored in Google's servers simply by asking Google to remove the
"To" and "From" lines. It matters not that it might even be helpful or relevant to the Government's
case to show that email is used to send content harmful to minors. Content is off limits under
ECPA except in rare cases and when procedural safeguards are followed. Google should not bear

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- 20 GOOGLE'S OPPOSITION TO
THE GOVERNMENT'S MOTION TO COMPEL
CASE NO. 5:06-MC-80006-JW

[41063-0026/BY060480.058]

Case5:06-mc-80006-JW Document12

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the burden of interpreting whether the Government is entitled to the search query results under the
form of process it has issued.

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IV.

CONCLUSION

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The Government seeks trade secrets from Google without coming close to proving that
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these secrets would be relevant in the underlying litigation, that the Government faces a
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"substantial need" that would not impose an "undue burden" on Google, and that federal law does
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not blunt the disclosure. The Government's Motion must fail.
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DATED: February 17, 2006.
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Respectfully submitted,
PERKINS COIE LLP

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By: /s/
ALBERT GIDARI, JR.
LISA A. DELEHUNT
180 Townsend Street, 3rd Floor
San Francisco, California 94107-1909
Telephone: [phone]
Facsimile: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]
Email: [e-mail]

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Attorneys for Google

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- 21 GOOGLE'S OPPOSITION TO
THE GOVERNMENT'S MOTION TO COMPEL
CASE NO. 5:06-MC-80006-JW

[41063-0026/BY060480.058]

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