Facebook isn't the only social media giant getting a closer look these days: Privacy advocates have some concerns about data Google is handing over to law enforcement authorities.



In June 2015, Adrian Pugh was killed at his home in Raleigh, North Carolina. Witnesses couldn't see the suspect very well in the dark but they did note he was using a cell phone to light his path. Police there convinced a judge to order Google to produce minimal data on every single cell phone in the area at the time – knowing they'd collect information on hundreds of innocent people for the chance of finding one killer.

Tyler Dukes, a reporter with WRAL, says it's not the only time Google's been served by Raleigh police.

"For the most part, what we found was very particularized search warrants where they're looking for specific account holders," he comments. "But we also found several instances where warrants were saying we want anonymized ID's of any Google account that has crossed within this area during a specific period of time."

He says the search warrant only asked for Google account numbers, not names or addresses or any data from the phones. Those particulars would come later after the list had been pared down, he says.

Yet attorney Abraham Hamilton, a former assistant district attorney now with the American Family Association, says such a wide net may be illegal.

Hamilton

"That is problematic," Hamilton says. "That is one of the purposes why we have a Fourth Amendment that protects American citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures."

Dukes says Google is being coy about how much data is being given out, probably because it wants to avoid the public beating Facebook is taking for its missteps during the 2016 elections.

"There are definitely some lingering questions we have about exactly what Google is handing over," he says, "whether Google is fighting these in some instances or pushing back in any way."