Google-DOJ Settlement Sends Message on Handling Third-Party Data

A settlement between Alphabet Inc.'s Google and the federal government could change how the Department of Justice tries to access data stored by third parties and what consequences companies face if they fail to furnish data related to a warrant or subpoena.

The stipulated agreement announced this week is related to a criminal investigation into BTC-e, a cryptocurrency exchange, and an associated search warrant issued to Google in 2016 for relevant data it was storing abroad. Legal wrangling followed, and by the time Congress clarified that a law it passed about access to private electronic records also applied to U.S. ...