OpenAI has urged a US federal court to seal personally identifiable information of its employees who are not parties to its ongoing litigation with Apple, citing privacy and security concerns, including the risk of harassment and unauthorised access to its internal systems.
In a filing dated October 22, OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products LLC asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to approve proposed redactions in a joint stipulation on expedited discovery. The companies also requested that the court permanently remove an earlier unredacted version of the document from the docket or apply the same redactions to it.
The filing follows Apple’s October 15 submission of a joint stipulation and proposed order on expedited discovery that was mistakenly filed without appropriate redactions of individuals’ names. The document was subsequently placed under seal by the court, according to OpenAI’s filing.
Apple subsequently sought to remove the unredacted document from the docket, citing the disclosure of sensitive personally identifiable information. It also filed an administrative motion seeking approval for a redacted version.
Privacy and security concerns
OpenAI argued that the information at issue belongs to employees who are not named in Apple’s complaint or in the preliminary injunction briefing in the case.
The company said withholding the information from public disclosure would protect employees’ privacy, reduce the risk of malicious attacks and limit unsolicited contact and potential harassment by third parties.
The filing also said OpenAI does not typically publish employees’ contact information, partly to prevent third parties from using it to seek unauthorised access to the company’s internal systems.
OpenAI’s lawyers argued that these concerns provide compelling reasons to seal the information under Ninth Circuit legal standards governing access to judicial records. They cited previous decisions in which courts permitted the sealing of personally identifiable information, including names, addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses.
The filing further pointed to an earlier order in the same litigation that sealed individual defendants’ personal addresses on privacy and security grounds, citing concerns associated with media attention surrounding the case and attempted physical attacks on another OpenAI executive at his home.
What OpenAI wants the court to do
The corporate defendants have asked the court to approve redactions limited to the personally identifiable information of nonparty employees. They have also sought the removal of the mistakenly filed document or the application of identical redactions to both versions.
The submission was filed by Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP on behalf of OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products LLC.
The filing concerns the handling of sensitive information in the discovery process and does not, by itself, resolve the underlying dispute between Apple and OpenAI.
