Government data requests to Google continue to rise - talbottume1968

Governments stay on to ask Google for more information about its users, with more than two-thirds of requests in the U.S. made through a subpoena, which unremarkably doesn't require asking a judge for a search warrant.

Drug user data requests of wholly kinds have increased by more than 70 percentage since 2009, Google said in its biannual "transparency report" that tallies government requests for users' data. For the six months from July through Dec 2022, the company said information technology has received about 21,389 information requests for some 33,634 users—up slightly from 20,938 requests for 34,615 users during the first half of the year.

For the first time, Google unveiled the types of legal work that government activity entities victimized to acquire the data. Sixty-octad percent of the 8,438 data requests in the U.S. were done through subpoenas. These types of requests were for user-identifying information issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and subpoena requests are the easiest to begin because they typically father't require a judge's review, Google said.

Google's latest transparency report reveals which legal processes the US government used to invest its information requests. Most were by subpoena, which doesn't deman approval from a judge. (Click to enlarge.)

"It's admirable that Google is now breaking the data down in a more specific way," same Trevor Timm, a blogger and activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital civil liberties group. But he added that he was still troubled past the trend.

"This confirms that the United States is ever increasingly conducting types of Internet surveillance without warrants," he said.

John Simpson, a consumer advocate with Consumer Watchdog, agreed. "I am alarmed by the number of government requests and concerned that and so many are done with but a subpoena," he said. "A stock-purchase warrant should cost required."

Sixty-six percent of the total data requests o'er the past six months LED to the release of some data, reported to the report.

Meanwhile, 22 percent of the data requests in the U.S. were through ECPA search warrants, which are issued past judges based on a demonstration of probable cause that information affiliated a crime could be constitute in the information, Google said.

The left 10 percent of requests were performed via tourist court orders aside judges or through other processes that are difficult to categorize, Google said. Most of the requests, Google said, pertain to criminal investigations, and the requests can come from multiple government agencies, including local and political unit police force forces.

EFF's Timm said the U.S. subpoena ad testificandum requests are probably for metadata such Eastern Samoa email headers, timestamps and contact lists, rather than email content.

"But that information prat be just as intrusive and despoil person's rational expectation of privacy," he said.

For the last half of 2022, the United States maintained its strong lead as the area responsible for the most government data requests to Google with 8,438—finished 6 percent from 7,969 requests during the first six months of the twelvemonth. Tracking hindquarters in second place, by a significant amount, was India, with 2,431 requests. The smallest number of requests during the past six months came from Danmark, with 34.

Google has been disclosing government data request figures since 2022.

Though the report primarily covers criminal matters, Google said IT cannot personify sure that a request relates to a criminal investigation. For example, the report would as wel admit, say, an emergency request from a government public safety agency seeking information to save the life sentence of a person in peril even though there may not cost a reprehensible investigation involved.

Google noted that it may refuse to bring out data or try to narrow the request in some cases. "Whenever we receive a request we make surely it meets both the letter and flavor of the legal philosophy ahead complying," the company said.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/456594/government-data-requests-to-google-continue-to-rise.html

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