Brown v. Google LLC

4 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 5 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA CHASOM BROWN, et al., Case No. 20-cv-03664-LHK (SVK) 8 Plaintiffs, ORDER ON ADMINISTRATIVE 9 v. MOTIONS TO FILE UNDER SEAL 10 GOOGLE LLC, Re: Dkt. Nos. 198, 204, 210, 217, 228, 229 11 Defendant.

12 Before the Court are several administrative motions to file under seal materials submitted in connection with discovery disputes in this case. Dkt. Nos. 198, 204, 210, 217, 228, 229; see also Dkt. 203.

15 Courts recognize a “general right to inspect and copy public records and documents, including judicial records and documents.” Kamakana v. City & Cnty. Of Honolulu, 447 F.3d 17 1172, 1178 (9th Cir. 2006) (quoting Nixon v. Warner Communs., Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 597 & n.7 (1978)). A request to seal court records therefore starts with a “strong presumption in favor of access.” Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1178 (quoting Foltz v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 331 F.3d 1122, 1135 (9th Cir. 2003)). The standard for overcoming the presumption of public access to court records depends on the purpose for which the records are filed with the court. A party seeking to seal court records relating to motions that are “more than tangentially related to the underlying cause of action” must demonstrate “compelling reasons” that support secrecy. Ctr. For Auto Safety v. Chrysler Grp., 809 F.3d 1092, 1099 (9th Cir. 2016). For records attached to motions that re “not related, or only tangentially related, to the merits of the case,” the lower “good cause” standard of Rule 26(c) applies. Id.; see also Kamakana, 447 F.3d at 1179. A party moving to seal court records must also comply with the procedures established by Civil Local 1 Here, the “good cause” standard applies because the information the parties seek to seal was submitted to the Court in connection with discovery-related motions, rather than a motion that concerns the merits of the case. The Court may reach different conclusions regarding sealing these documents under different standards or in a different context. Having considered the motions to seal, supporting declarations, and the pleadings on file, and good cause appearing, the Court ORDERS as follows: 7 1. ECF 198 9 Court’s Ruling Document Sought to be on Motion to Reason(s) for Court’s Ruling 10 Sealed Seal GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect 11 Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel redacted portions at: confidential technical information regarding Dispute P3 regarding features of Google’s Page 1, lines 16 operations and consumer data, 13 Page 2, lines 17 including the various types of Page 3, lines 4, 7, 9- Google’s internal identifiers/cookies 14 10, 19-24, 28 and their proprietary functions, the Page 4, lines 1-3 various types of logs maintained by 15 Page 6, lines 6-11, 28 Google, and information contained Page 7, lines 1-2 in those logs, that Google maintains Page 8, lines 1, 28 as confidential in the ordinary course 17 Page 9, lines 1 of its business and is not generally known to the public or Google’s 18 competitors.

19 GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect Declaration of John A. Yanchunis In redacted portions at: confidential technical information 20 Support Of Plaintiffs’ Motion To Page 1, lines 8-10, regarding features of Google’s 21 Compel regarding Dispute P3 13-14 operations and consumer data, Page 2, lines 12-13 including the various types of 22 Google’s internal identifiers/cookies and their proprietary functions, that Google maintains as confidential in the ordinary course of its business and is not generally known to the 25 public or Google’s competitors.

26 GRANTED as to the Contains confidential technical Exhibit 1 to the Declaration of John document in its information regarding features of 27 A. Yanchunis entirety Google’s operations and consumer data storage infrastructure, that Google maintains as confidential in 2 the ordinary course of its business and is not generally known to the 3 public or Google’s competitors.

GRANTED as to the Contains confidential technical Exhibit 2 to the Declaration of John document in its information regarding features of A. Yanchunis entirety Google’s operations and consumer data, including the Google’s internal 6 identifiers/cookies, that Google maintains as confidential in the 7 ordinary course of its business and is not generally known to the public or 8 Google’s competitors.

GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect 10 Exhibit 3 to the Declaration of John redacted portions at: confidential technical information A. Yanchunis regarding features of Google’s 11 Pages 2-3 operations and consumer data, including the various types of Google’s internal identifiers/cookies and their proprietary functions, that Google maintains as confidential in 14 the ordinary course of its business and is not generally known to the 15 public or Google’s competitors.

GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect 17 Exhibit 4 to the Declaration of John redacted portions at: confidential technical information A. Yanchunis regarding features of Google’s Page 6, line 1, 17, 22 18 operations and consumer data, including the various types of 19 Google’s internal identifiers/cookies and their proprietary functions, that Google maintains as confidential in 21 the ordinary course of its business and is not generally known to the 22 public or Google’s competitors.

23 GRANTED as to the Contains confidential technical Exhibit 5 to the Declaration of John document in its information regarding features of 24 A. Yanchunis entirety Google’s operations and consumer 25 data, including the various types of Google’s internal identifiers/cookies 26 and their proprietary functions, the various types of logs maintained by 27 Google, and information contained as confidential in the ordinary course of its business and is not generally 2 known to the public or Google’s competitors.

GRANTED as to the Contains confidential technical Exhibit 6 to the Declaration of John document in its information regarding features of A. Yanchunis: entirety Google’s operations and consumer data, including the various types of 6 Google’s internal identifiers/cookies and their proprietary functions, that 7 Google maintains as confidential in the ordinary course of its business 8 and is not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors.

10 GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect Exhibit 7 to the Declaration of John redacted portions at: confidential technical information 11 A. Yanchunis regarding features of Google’s Pages 1, 2, 3 operations and consumer data, including the various types of Google’s internal identifiers/cookies and their proprietary functions, that 14 Google maintains as confidential in the ordinary course of its business 15 and is not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors.

17 GRANTED as to the Contains confidential technical Exhibit 8 to the Declaration of John document in its information regarding features of 18 A. Yanchunis entirety Google’s operations and consumer data, including the various types of 19 logs maintained by Google and retention periods applicable thereto, that Google maintains as 21 confidential in the ordinary course of its business and is not generally 22 known to the public or Google’s competitors.

GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect 24 Proposed Order redacted portions at: confidential technical information 25 Page 1, lines 18-19 regarding features of Google’s operations and consumer data, 26 including the various types of Google’s internal identifiers/cookies.

2. ECF 204 Court’s Document Sought to be Reason(s) for Court’s Ruling 3 Sealed Ruling on Motion to 4 Seal Joint Submission Re: Nominations GRANTED 5 for a Special Master and Proposed Protect individual privacy Orders interests.

6 Exhibit A-1 to A-5 GRANTED Protect individual privacy interests.

3. ECF 210 Court’s Ruling 10 Document Sought to be on Motion to Reason(s) for Court’s Ruling Sealed Seal 11 Opposition To Plaintiffs’ Motion GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect To Compel Regarding Dispute P3 redacted portions at: confidential technical information regarding features of Google’s 13 Page 4, lines 1, 3, 8- operations and consumer data, 11, 14-21, 23-24, including the various types of 14 27-28 Google’s internal identifiers/cookies and their Page 5, lines 6-7, proprietary functions, that Google 16 10, 13-16 maintains as confidential in the ordinary course of its business and 17 Page 6, lines 22 is not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors.

18 Page 7, lines 20-21 Page 8, lines 9, 11- 20 12, 14-15 Ex. 1, Google’s May 24, 2021 GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect 21 Responses and Objections to redacted portions at: confidential technical information Plaintiffs’ Notice of Rule 30(b)(6) regarding features of Google’s 22 Deposition Page 4, lines 21-22, operations and consumer data, 26 including the various types of Google’s internal 24 Page 8, lines 10-11 identifiers/cookies and their proprietary functions, that Google 25 Page 9, line 9 maintains as confidential in the ordinary course of its business and 26 is not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors.

4. ECF 217 Court’s Ruling 3 Document Sought to be on Motion to Reason(s) for Court’s Ruling Sealed Seal 4 Joint Letter Brief re: Dispute P16 GRANTED as Narrowly tailored to protect to redacted confidential information regarding 5 portions at page features of Google’s internal systems 6 4 at lines 19, 21, and operations, including details 25-26, 27-28; related to internal identifiers and 7 page 5 at lines various data logs maintained by 4-5, 9-14, 22-23; Google, as well as Google’s internal 8 page 7 at lines practices with regard to the X- 23-25, 26-28; Client-Data Header and its page 8 at lines proprietary functions, that Google 10 27-28; page 9 at maintains as confidential in the lines 1-2, 3, 5-7, ordinary course of its business and is 11 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, not generally known to the public or 13-14, 22-23, Google’s competitors.

25; and page 10 13 at line 1 14 5. ECF 228 Court’s Ruling 16 Document Sought to be on Motion to Reason(s) for Court’s Ruling Sealed Seal Joint Submission GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect 18 redacted portions at confidential information regarding pages 7, 8, 11, 12, 24, features of Google’s internal systems 19 31, 59, 60 and operations, including details related to cookies, internal identifiers 20 and various data logs maintained by Google, as well as Google’s internal communications and practices with 22 regard to Incognito, X-Client-Data Header and their proprietary 23 functions, that Google maintains as confidential in the ordinary course of 24 its business and is not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors.

6. ECF 229 Court’s Ruling 4 Document Sought to be on Motion to Reason(s) for Court’s Ruling Sealed Seal 5 Plaintiffs’ Proposed Order re GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect Custodian and Search Terms redacted portions at: confidential information about 6 features of Google’s internal systems Page 2, lines 12, 14- and operations, including details 22; related to cookies, internal identifiers 8 Page 3, lines 2, 4, 5-6, and projects, and various data logs 9, 11-13, 17-19, 21- maintained by Google, that Google 9 23, 27; maintains as confidential in the Page 4, lines 1, 5-7, ordinary course of its business and is 11-13, 18-19, 23-25; not generally known to the public or 11 Page 5, lines 1, 3, 7, Google’s competitors.

9-10, 13-15, 21, 24- 12 28; Page 6, lines 5-7, 11, 13 13, 15, 19-22, 25-26; Page 7, lines 4-7, 11- 12, 16, 18-19, 23-24, 15 27; Page 8, lines 2-3, 7- 16 10, 13-15, 18-20, 24, 26; 17 Page 9, lines 3-5, 10, 14-15, 19-20, 23, 25- 26; 19 Page 10, lines 2-4, 7- 9, 12-13 Plaintiffs’ Proposed Order re Sundar GRANTED as to Narrowly tailored to protect Pichai Production redacted portions at: confidential information about 22 features of Google’s internal systems Page 2, lines 9-15 and operations, including details 23 related to cookies, internal identifiers and projects, and various data logs 24 maintained by Google, that Google maintains as confidential in the ordinary course of its business and is 26 not generally known to the public or Google’s competitors.

1 SO ORDERED.

2 || Dated: August 11, 2021 | Seesien veh SUSAN VAN KEULEN 5 United States Magistrate Judge

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