Judge Urged To Release Documents About Google's Cellphone Tracking

Eight weeks ago Arizona's attorney general sued Google for allegedly deceiving users about when location data would be collected from their phones, tracking them without their clear consent. . Now an Arizona congressman and more than two dozen researchers from institutions including Yale, MIT, and Cornell are urging a judge to publicly release the documents collected during that investigation: The documents at issue relate directly to debates going on in Washington, Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs told a Maricopa County Superior Court judge... "All branches of our government exist to protect the fundamental liberties of our citizens — especially their privacy,'' Biggs said. "The public has a strong interest in transparency and learning the full extent to which Google and other tech companies may be spying and surreptitiously collecting information from Arizonans, including constituents whom I represent..." [T]he judge will have to consider arguments filed Friday by Assistant Attorney General Beau Roysden asking Thomason to ignore a bid by Google to keep the documents secret or, at the very least, delay a decision while the company tries to have the entire lawsuit thrown out. "Google's requested delay would unconstitutionally impair the right of public access that is guaranteed by both the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution,'' Roysden told the judge... He pointed out that the records at issue the records that Google provided to the Attorney General's Office under what's called a "civil investigatory demand'' are part of the complaint filed with the court... So far, Roysden said, the company has presented no good reason for keeping most of these sealed. More to the point, he argues that it's really too late for Google to do anything about it as it is now part of the court record.

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