Lots of surveillance information was dumped on Dec. 24 by the National Security Agency (NSA), in an effort to make sure it was more transparent with the public about internal abuses.

It was not the only surveillance news to hit the web, WikiLeaks also received an alert that an undisclosed employee's Gmail metadata had been seized by the U.S. government, following a federal U.S. warrant.

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Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks and Courage Foundation contributor, revealed the warrant at the Chaos Communications Congress. The warrant was dated for execution on April 5, 2012, and was linked to the investigation of WikiLeaks and founder Julian Assange.

Neither Google or WikiLeaks revealed the name of the employee, both making statements on the matter to Ars Technica:

"Given the high level assassination threats against WikiLeaks staff, we cannot disclose exact details about our team members." WikiLeaks said in a statement, following a previous U.S. warrant in 2011 disclosing an employee's Google account metadata.

"We don't talk about individual cases to help protect all our users. Obviously, we follow the law like any other company. When we receive a subpoena or court order, we check to see if it meets both the letter and the spirit of the law before complying. And if it doesn't, we can object or ask that the request is narrowed. We have a track record of advocating on behalf of our users." said a Google spokesperson in an email response.

WikiLeaks has continued to work with whistleblowers around the world, to leak information on private and important events, not documented by the mainstream media or government.

The U.S. government has been trying to extradite Julian Assange to the U.S., to face trial for the violations of the law, but has so far been unsuccessful. Assange still lives in the Ecuador Embassy in London, but hopes to leave soon.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has warned against using platforms like Google and Facebook, claiming they are in the hands of the U.S. government, due to both being U.S. corporations.

Microsoft is currently fighting an appeal to make sure user data based in other countries cannot be seized under a U.S. warrant, meaning the U.S. government would have to find a warrant in the appropriate region. This would make it a lot harder for the U.S. government to gain information on WikiLeaks employees, normally based in Europe.

TagsWikiLeaks, U.S. warrant, U.S. Government, Gmail, surveillance, whistleblower