Are Online Phone Records Vulnerable Too?

In light of recent revelations that the Department of Justice secretly requested the telephone records of Associated Press (AP) journalists, we started thinking about newer calling services, like Google Voice. We know that some journalists also use these services. Are these records vulnerable too?

Google Voice can be handy, allowing people on the move like journalists to send and receive calls or text messages via the Internet using a single number provided by Google. This number can be linked to the user's real world phones, and calls placed to the Voice number can be forwarded to those phones. Voice also includes an optional voicemail transcription service and the ability to record incoming calls.

But when you hang up, that call data doesn't disappear. According to Google's Privacy Policy, the company may collect "telephony log information like your phone number, calling-party number, forwarding numbers, time and date of calls, duration of calls, SMS routing information and types of calls." Conversations you record are stored, and voicemail transcription information may be backed up too. You can get a copy of your Voice data via the easy-to-use Google Takeout, which provides users with downloadable backups of their data stored within Google products. Depending on how long you've used Voice, that data may go back years—I was on the service for a few months in 2010, and Takeout showed me date, time, and calling party information for over one hundred calls.

And where could your call data end up? Google's Privacy Policy explains that it uses the information collected by its services to improve existing services, develop new ones, and offer tailored content—like giving more relevant search results and ads. But once collected, your data may be vulnerable to government demands. The privacy policy also makes it clear that like other companies, Google responds to "law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request." Its transparency report gives users important information on the extent of government requests.

The DOJ's investigation of the AP's phone records is a cause for concern. Government requests for call records implicate the speech and privacy rights of the press, their anonymous sources, and other third parties. The AP story should prompt us to think about other calling services and whether the information they collect may be vulnerable too.

Matthew Cagle is a Volunteer Attorney for Technology and Civil Liberties with the ACLU of Northern California.