Google pressed for more disclosures of government data...
Google pressed for more disclosures of government data requests and updates to different laws in Congress. Google has posted transparency reports for years and seen government requests for its user data skyrocket -- they doubled over the course of three…
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years, the company said in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/19niZpp). Google received 10,918 requests from the U.S. government from January to June 2013, according to its latest data. Of the requests, 68 percent were subpoenas, 22 percent warrants, 6 percent “other court orders,” 2 percent pen register orders and 1 percent emergency disclosure requests, it said. It included a chart titled Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests, completely blacked out with a parenthetical message saying, “The U.S. government contends that we cannot share this information.” Google also included a chart comparing the number of U.S. requests to other countries over that same timeframe, with U.S. taking the lead by more than 8,000 requests. The U.S. is also the government yielding the highest percentage of data produced from its requests. Google produced some data in 83 percent of U.S. government requests, it said. “We want to go even further,” said Legal Director-Law Enforcement and Information Security Richard Salgado. “The U.S. Department of Justice contends that U.S. law does not allow us to share information about some national security requests that we might receive. .... But you deserve to know.” Salgado testified to that effect Wednesday before Congress (CD Nov 14 p8). Salgado wrote of Google’s federal case and letters of support for legislation in order to be more transparent about the government requests. Google also wants the Electronic Communications Privacy Act updated in this session of Congress, and “we urge Congress to expeditiously enact a bright-line, warrant-for-content rule,” Salgado said. “Governmental entities should be required to obtain a warrant -— issued based on a showing of probable cause -- before requiring companies like Google to disclose the content of users’ electronic communications.” Google’s latest transparency report “illustrates the government’s steadily growing appetite for more data from more users,” said Center for Democracy & Technology President Leslie Harris, in a statement. Laws to prevent warrantless searches should be updated, she said. “Reforming ECPA is an important step Congress can take to restore the checks and balances that are supposed to prevent government overreach into our private lives.”