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 motion to seal narrowly redacted discovery material about Google’s internal systems and cookies.
Google and the parties’ joint discovery filing were affected directly; the ruling also limited public access to the specified redacted portions of that filing.
What happened
In Brown v. Google LLC, Google asked the court to seal portions of the parties’ joint submission concerning a discovery dispute. The requested material was part of a discovery-related filing, not a motion addressing the merits of the case.
The court applied the lower “good cause” standard because the records were connected to discovery. Google argued that the information involved confidential and proprietary details about its internal systems, operations, and cookies.
Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen granted the motion as to narrowly redacted portions of pages 2 and 3 of the joint submission. The court found good cause to protect the sensitive information, which Google maintained as confidential and which was not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors.
The detailed version
- Brown v. Google LLC · No. 4:20-cv-03664
- Yvonne Rogers
- May 10, 2021
Background
Google filed an administrative motion asking to seal portions of the parties’ May 6, 2021 Joint Discovery Submission. The opinion identifies the request as concerning a discovery dispute rather than a motion addressing the merits of the underlying case.
Legal standard
Court records generally carry a strong presumption of public access. The court explained that the standard for sealing depends on how closely the records relate to the merits. Records connected more than tangentially to the underlying claim require “compelling reasons,” while records that are not related, or are only tangentially related, to the merits may be sealed on a showing of “good cause” under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c).
Ruling
The court held that the good-cause standard applied because the information was submitted in connection with a discovery-related motion. After considering the sealing motions, supporting declarations, and the filings, the court granted the motion as to narrowly redacted portions of pages 2 and 3 of the Joint Submission, identified as Dispute P3. The stated reason was to protect highly confidential and proprietary information concerning highly sensitive features of Google’s internal systems and operations, including details about cookies Google uses internally and their proprietary functions. The court noted that it could reach different conclusions under a different standard or in a different context. Magistrate Judge Susan Van Keulen ordered the sealing on May 10, 2021.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.