Google Handed WikiLeaks Employees' Emails To FBI in 2012

Wikileaks is seeking explanations after it has come to light that Google gave the FBI emails and other related data belonging to three WikiLeaks staff members, in March 2012.

Google waited over two and a half years to tell WikiLeaks about the government request. FBI had issued a warrant in March 2012 that asked for the contents of all emails - sent, received and draft, including their destination or origin IP addresses and even the credit cards associated with the accounts.

It is not clear that how much of information Google handed over, and WikiLeaks has asked Mountain View company for some insight.

In a letter to Eric Schmidt, WikiLeaks explains that it's "astonished and disturbed" that Google waited so long to notify it. It points out that the long delay could have hindered the organization's chances to protect it rights to "privacy, association and freedom from illegal searches." The letter demands Google list all the content it supplied to FBI and enquires as to whether Google attempted to challenge the warrants, Gizmodo writes.

Google, after informing WikiLeaks of the incident on Christmas Eve of 2014, claimed that a gag order had prevented it from telling WikiLeaks about the incident. But it did not say when it was lifted.

 "Knowing that the FBI read the words I wrote to console my mother over a death in the family makes me feel sick," British citizen Sarah Harrison, the spokesperson for the organization explained to Guardian.

She also accused Google of helping the US government conceal "the invasion of privacy into a British journalist's personal email address. Neither Google nor the US government are living up to their own laws or rhetoric in privacy or press protections".