Facebook Vs. U.S. Government: Social Network Loses Challenge To Bulk Data Collection Warrants

The New York State Court of Appeals issued a ruling Tuesday that rejected a request from Facebook that would have allowed the social networking company to challenge bulk search warrants that would require turning over user data to law enforcement, according to a report from the New York Times.

The 5-1 decision, in which one judge recused himself, upheld a decision by a lower New York court that would not allow Facebook to appeal search warrants issued for user information in a criminal case.

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Facebook was seeking the ability to dismiss a number of search warrants that the company believed were too broad and overreaching. The particulars of the case center around warrants for 381 Facebook accounts issued as part of an investigation into a disability fraud case in 2013.

Photos, conversations and other information obtained through the warrants were used by the district attorney for Manhattan to indict 130 police officers and government employees who used fake or exaggerated ailments related to the fallout of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Court of Appeals found Facebook would not be able to challenge those warrants, even if it believes the searches would violate the constitutional rights of its users.

The ruling comes as a blow to Facebook and other tech companies including Microsoft, Google and Twitter—all of which issued support for Facebook and its efforts to push for the right to challenge the warrants.

“We’re disappointed by the court’s ruling, but we are encouraged to see the thorough dissent that supports Facebook’s position arguing for people’s online privacy,” a Facebook spokesperson told International Business Times. “We are grateful to the many organizations that joined us in challenging these overbroad warrants, and we are continuing to evaluate our options because we believe strongly in the issues underlying this case.”

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While the court ruling is a step back for the social media company, it is not a total loss. Facebook read the ruling not as the judges rejecting its argument for user privacy but as the court saying it lacked the jurisdiction to fully review the original order.

Two of the justices agreed Facebook and other companies should have the right to appeal search warrants. In the decision, the majority notes, “this case undoubtedly implicates novel and important substantive issues regarding the constitutional rights of privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, and the parameters of a federal statute establishing methods by which the government may obtain certain types of information.”

Despite the moral victory for Facebook, the decision itself is still chalked up as a loss for tech companies hoping to push back against law enforcement agencies requesting access to user data—a mission that has produced checkered results thus far.

Google recently lost a case that will require the search giant to comply with FBI search warrants seeking access to customer emails stored on servers located outside the United States. The ruling was in contrast to a prior decision in a case involving Microsoft that found the company could not be forced to hand over customer emails stored overseas.

Microsoft also scored a victory on this front earlier this year when it won the right to sue on behalf of its customers over the government’s practice of placing a gag order on companies when requesting customer data.