Justice Department officials have filed a “secret lawsuit” that would force Google to deliver private user data to the government in the absence of a warrant, and without notifying the person being probed by law enforcement.

DOJ filed the lawsuit on April 22, about two weeks before news broke that government lawyers had seized Associated Press phone records. “[The lawsuit] offers a rare glimpse of how determined prosecutors are to defend a process that allows federal agents to gain warrantless access to user records, and how committed the Mountain View, Calif., company is to defending its customers’ privacy rights against what it views as illegal requests,” according to CNET, which first reported on the lawsuit.