Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: personal info not relivant to case, was my privacy invading

It sounds as though you are either a party to a lawsuit or a non-party witness who was subpoenaed. In either case, you may be required to provide relevant evidence under a pre-trial process called "discovery."

In discovery, the breadth of discoverable matters is considerably greater than that which would be admissible evidence at trial. The definition of what is discoverable includes, to paraphrase the words of the Code of Civil Procedure, things which are admissible evidence or which might lead to admissible evidence.

In real life, lawyers from the various sides in a lawsuit spend a fair amount of time in legal argument over whether certain material is subject to discovery, and judges frequently are asked to rule on whether facts, things, etc. are subject to discovery or are protected by, say, attorney-client privilege, privacy rights, etc.

Sometimes, courts issue "protective orders" which either prohibit discovery inquiries into an irrelevant area or require the documents, etc. to be delivered to the court under seal for private review by a judge or discovery master. Then, only the relevant portions are released to the attorneys for use at trial.

All of this is to say that what is discoverable and what isn't is a very law-technical area, and a non-lawyer would probably have no easy way to know whether the materials extracted from his computer during discovery are properly discoverable or not.

If the issue is very important, and you are not already represented by counsel, you should consider obtaining representation by an attorney who is experienced in civil pre-trial litigation matters such as discovery, subpoenas, etc.