Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union warned that “Trawling through Google’s search history database enables police to identify people merely based on what they might have been thinking about, for whatever reason, at some point in the past.”

“This never-before-possible technique threatens First Amendment interests and will inevitably sweep up innocent people,” Granick added, further warning “especially if the keyword terms are not unique and the time frame not precise.”

“To make matters worse, police are currently doing this in secret, which insulates the practice from public debate and regulation,” Granick urged.

Google responded to the news with a statement defending its actions.

“As with all law enforcement requests, we have a rigorous process that is designed to protect the privacy of our users while supporting the important work of law enforcement,” the statement claimed.

Forbes notes that “Similar orders were served on Microsoft and Yahoo for their respective search engines.”

While the actual data the tech companies handed over remains sealed, the orders on Google can be read here, here and here, while the Microsoft and Yahoo orders can be found here and here.

The issue made headlines briefly last year, and has been ongoing for some time: