Brown v. Google LLC
- Yvonne Rogers
- 4:20-cv-03664
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 2
In Brown v. Google LLC, Judge Van Keulen partly granted Google's sealing motion for discovery materials, protecting technical and personal information.
Google, the plaintiffs, and members of the public seeking access to the court records.
What happened
In Brown v. Google LLC, Google asked the court to seal materials connected with discovery disputes.
The court applied the lower “good cause” standard because the materials concerned discovery-related motions rather than the case’s merits. It granted sealing for Exhibit A and granted sealing for specified portions of Exhibit B containing confidential information about Google’s internal systems and personal information about the plaintiffs.
Judge Susan Van Keulen issued the order on December 7, 2021.
The detailed version
- Brown v. Google LLC · No. 4:20-cv-03664
- Yvonne Rogers
- Dec. 7, 2021
Background
Google filed an administrative motion asking the court to seal materials associated with discovery disputes. The requested materials were attached to a submission to the special master and included two exhibits to a declaration.
Legal standard
The court explained that judicial records generally carry a strong presumption of public access. The standard for sealing depends on how closely the records relate to the merits of the case. Records connected to motions more than tangentially related to the underlying claims require compelling reasons for secrecy. Records connected to motions that are not related, or only tangentially related, to the merits may be sealed upon a showing of good cause under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(c). The party seeking sealing must also follow the court’s Civil Local Rule 79-5 procedures.
Ruling
The court held that the good-cause standard applied because the materials were submitted in connection with discovery-related motions rather than a motion concerning the merits.
The court ruled as follows:
- Exhibit A to the Golueke Declaration: Sealing was granted. The sealed material contained confidential technical information about sensitive features of Google’s internal systems and operations, including data sources, data logs, internal data structures, internal identifiers, and proprietary functions. - Exhibit B to the Golueke Declaration, portions highlighted in yellow on pages 3, 6–8, 10–11, and 13–14 and 17–20: Sealing was granted as to those portions because they contained confidential technical information about Google’s internal systems and operations. - Exhibit B to the Golueke Declaration, portions highlighted in blue on pages 1–20: Sealing was granted as to those portions because they contained personal information regarding the plaintiffs.
The order states that the sealing was narrowly tailored to protect the identified confidential information. Judge Susan Van Keulen ordered the relief on December 7, 2021.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.