Has the FBI ever heard of Google?

The case centered around four audiotapes recorded more than 25 years ago as part of an FBI investigation in Louisiana. An author, who is the plaintiff in the case, sought release of the tapes under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, as it's more generally known.

The FBI withheld production of the requested tapes, arguing that it had not been able to determine whether the speakers on the tapes were still living, and thus were entitled to have their privacy protected. FOIA case law holds that a person no longer has the same privacy rights upon his or her death.

The FBI could not figure out whether the speakers were over 100 years old--and thus presumed dead under FBI practice--because neither had mentioned their birth dates during conversations that were recorded surreptitiously.

The agency also took the position that it could not conclude whether the speakers were alive or dead by referencing a Social Security database. The reason? The speakers did not state their Social Security numbers during the recorded conversations.

Furthermore, the FBI failed to search its own files for the speakers' birth dates or Social Security numbers, simply because that is not its standard practice.

The words of the appellate court ring oh so true:

"Why, in short, doesn't the FBI just Google the two names? Surely, in the Internet age, a 'reasonable alternative' for finding out whether a prominent person is dead is to use Google (or any other search engine), to find a report of that person's death."