Brown v. Google LLC
- Yvonne Rogers
- 4:20-cv-03664
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Brown v. Google LLC, Magistrate Judge Van Keulen granted Google’s request to seal limited discovery information about data logs.
Google and the public’s access to portions of the joint discovery letter brief, particularly information about Google’s data logs and retention practices.
What happened
In Brown v. Google LLC, Google asked to keep portions of a joint discovery letter brief from public view.
The court applied the lower standard for discovery-related records and found good cause to seal information about Google’s data logs, including their size, attributes, and retention costs. It granted the request as to specified redacted portions.
Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen issued the order on April 5, 2021.
The detailed version
- Brown v. Google LLC · No. 4:20-cv-03664
- Yvonne Rogers
- Apr. 5, 2021
Background
Google filed an administrative motion asking the court to seal portions of the parties’ March 23, 2021 joint discovery letter brief. The court explained that judicial records generally carry a strong presumption of public access.
Legal standard
The court distinguished between records tied closely to the merits of a case, which generally require compelling reasons for sealing, and records only tangentially related to the merits. Because the information here was submitted in connection with a discovery-related motion rather than a merits motion, the court applied the lower “good cause” standard under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c).
Ruling
The court granted Google’s motion as to specified redacted portions of the joint letter brief concerning electronic information-system preservation. The court found that the redactions were narrowly tailored to protect confidential technical information about various types of data logs maintained by Google, including the logs’ size and other attributes and the cost of suspending their retention periods. The court noted that a different standard or context could lead to a different conclusion about sealing these documents. The order was signed by Susan Van Keulen, United States Magistrate Judge.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.