The contentious method, which is already attracting civil liberties concerns about extensive government power, was issued on Tuesday in "accidentally unsealed" court data obtained by Forbes.
Keyword warrants — which have been secretly employed for at least several years — are drawing backlash as many argue they violate an individual's constitutional protections against irrational search and seizure.
"Trawling through Google's search history database enables police to identify people merely based on what they might have been thinking about, for whatever reason, at some point in the past," said Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union.
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"This never-before-possible technique threatens First Amendment interests and will inevitably sweep up innocent people, especially if the keyword terms are not unique and the time frame not precise. To make matters worse, police are currently doing this in secret, which insulates the practice from public debate and regulation."
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Nevertheless, Google has backed its choice to respond to keyword warrants and claims they protect users when doing so.
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"As with all law enforcement requests, we have a rigorous process that is designed to protect the privacy of our users while supporting the important work of law enforcement," a Google spokesperson explained.
The federal government requires the scope of the warrants is limited, which supposedly bypasses involving innocent people who search the specific terms by chance.
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Still, officials have not publicly revealed how often they use keyword warrants requests or the number of users whose data has been remade over by private tech companies.
Forbes reported that only a handful of keyword warrant requests have been made public.
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The most sweeping was a keyword hunt for the serial bomber who struck Austin, Texas in 2018.
The order served on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft asked the handover of IP and account information for anyone who sought a range of terms related to bomb-making, such as "low explosives" and "pipe bomb."
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Two people were killed in the 20-day bombing spree, and bomber Mark Anthony Conditt killed himself as officials closed in on him. Police said that he was located by unique pink construction gloves captured on surveillance video.
The government also asked Google to provide data on anyone who had searched for the address of an arson victim who was a witness in R. Kelly's racketeering trial.
Cybersecurity experts have expressed concerns over keyword warrants because they are a type of search term order which are "effectively fishing expeditions".
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