Documents reviewed exclusively by The Guardian show Google regularly forwarded detailed personal information on the company’s users to members of a counter-terrorism center in California’s Bay Area.
The users were often associated with the far right.
Further analysis finds Google did not necessarily ban all of the users they reported to authorities. Some still have accounts on YouTube, Gmail and other Google services.
The documents have been authenticated by cybersecurity experts, according to the outlet.
Documents containing the user data are signed by the company’s CyberCrime Investigation Group (CIG). CIG is a little-known investigative unit inside Google that has been mentioned in coverage of criminal proceedings in the past based on their reports.