: Google recieves court order to produce information relating to AdSense account This is a new one for me and doing some quick searching didn't produce and informative results pertaining to my
This is a new one for me and doing some quick searching didn't produce and informative results pertaining to my questions. I did find information regarding the case which dates back to 2014.
Today I received an email from Google stating that they are being ordered by a state court to produce information relating to my AdSense account. This includes my name, address and telephone number. Judging by the email I assume that I am not the only one and this is more of a blanket scenario.
Here is the email:
Notice About Your AdSense Account
Hello,
Recently, Google was ordered by a California state court to
produce information relating to your AdSense account. This email
serves as notice to you that Google will comply with that court order
and produce the information unless you make a formal objection to the
court that issued the order, as described below.
Please note that this
notice has been sent to you by a no-reply email address. Replies sent
to [no reply alias] will not be opened, read, or reviewed.
The court
order was issued in a lawsuit entitled Ogtanyan v. Google Inc., in the
Superior Court of the State of California, Santa Clara County, Case
No. 114-CV-259301. This lawsuit was filed against Google by a former
AdSense publisher named Peter Ogtanyan, who is challenging Google’s
termination of his AdSense account. As part of his lawsuit against
Google, Mr. Ogtanyan requested that Google produce to him the name,
address and telephone number of AdSense publishers whose accounts were
terminated between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014, but who
successfully appealed termination through Google’s internal appeals
procedure and received payment of earnings that had been withheld. It
appears from our records that you are a publisher who falls in this
category.
Over Google’s objection, the California court ruled that
Google must provide this information to Mr. Ogtanyan. It is possible
that Mr. Ogtanyan’s lawyer will use this information to contact you,
but this does not make you a party to this case. The court also issued
a protective order in this case, and Google will designate your
information as highly confidential. This designation prohibits Mr.
Ogtanyan and his lawyer from using your information for any purpose
outside of his lawsuit against Google. It also limits the persons with
whom Mr. Ogtanyan and his lawyer may share your information.
If you do
not want Google to produce your AdSense account information to Mr.
Ogtanyan, you must (1) file a motion to quash or other type of formal
objection in this lawsuit (Case No. 114-CV-259301) in the Superior
Court of the State of California, Santa Clara County; and (2) provide
a copy of the file-stamped motion or objection to us by emailing it to
Google’s lawyer at nicolealtman@quinnemanuel.com by 5 p.m. Pacific
Time on May 9, 2016.
Unfortunately, Google cannot give you legal
advice about this matter.
Regards, Google Legal Investigations Support
Questions:
Do my assumptions seem accurate in which this is not unique to my information and more of a blanket email to every Adsense publisher which fits the descriptions within the email?
Does Google marking this information as "highly confidential" actually mean anything once it is provided?
Should i get legal advice? (Hard without money for said advice).
More posts by @Pope3001725
1 Comments
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1) Yes
ii - Unknown, but it may help to keep the information under seal in the court records instead of being accessible to anyone who requests the records of the case.
c. I wouldn't at this time. This has very little to do with you personally. The plaintiff is attempting to show that Google acted in an arbitrary or capricious fashion when they closed his account and they are going to use you (and probably hundreds of others) to prove that. You may be contacted by the plaintiff attorney and asked questions about your termination, appeal, and reinstatement but unless you receive a subpoena you are under no obligation to answer. If you did receive a subpoena then you ARE under obligation to answer and at that point it would have been worth paying for an hour of a lawyer's time to more fully understand things. But because you are not in the USA the liklihood of you ever being contacted is extremely low.
You can also file a motion to quash your data from being revealed but that will involve getting a lawyer and (IMHO) has very little chance of succeeding unless there is something in your data that radically differs from other users.
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