Recently, a court issued a restraining order against Google and ordered the Silicon Valley search giant to remove personal identifiable content from its cache system. This order was derived from content accidentally posted online, identifying citizens of Johnstn county North Carolina.

The actual web page which contained the data has been updated and the personally identifiable data has been removed. However, a search on the Google engine shows that data still available and easily displayed in the cache of the web page. Some of the data includes social security numbers, cell phone numbers and other like data.

The moving party was fearful for possible identity theft with such information in the public domain. The information had been posted for six (6) weeks on the county’s web site, but once it was discovered, the data was promptly removed.

Google in no-way disputed the court order and was working at the time of the hearing to remove the data. However, in today’s litigious society some people are just so quick to pull the trigger on civil litigation and not give the preverbal deer in the cross hairs a chance to fix the problem.

Labels: cyberlaw, google, law suit