U.S. law enforcement is asking for more Google user data than ever, often without a warrant, according to a recent update to the Google Transparency Report.
From July to December 2012, Google received 8,438 total requests for information about 14,791 users in the US, an increase of 34 percent from 2011 to 2012. The most recent report by Google features for the first time how often the FBI and local cops use a subpoena, as opposed to a warrant, to access Google users’ private information. Yet Google didn’t report the specifics on FBI requests.
“We’re reporting numerical ranges rather than exact numbers,” wrote Richard Salgado, Google’s legal director. “This is to address concerns raised by the FBI, Justice Department and other agencies that releasing exact numbers might reveal information about investigations.”
The number of requests from U.S. law enforcement for Google’s user’s information has been steadily increasing since Google began reporting U.S. government agency requests in 2009, when the company received 3,580 requests. During the second half of 2011, Google received 6,231 requests for Google users’ private data from U.S. government agencies and complied with nearly all (93 percent) of them.
Google also responds to requests from other countries, with 21,839 data requests from foreign governments during the second half of 2012, compared with 18,257 it received during the same time period in 2011.
Google voluntarily releases the information and notes it is the only major Internet company to publicly reveal the number of times government agencies request information. It is not clear whether other firms like Facebook, Microsoft, and AT&T receive similar requests, although Microsoft is spending “millions of dollars” for its “Scroogled” campaign that accuses Google’s Gmail of invading users’ privacy.
Google policy analyst Dorothy Chou told Forbes last year that Google requires an appropriate agency to submit a written request, cite a criminal case, and identify the terms of which users are affected and the time frame of data requested.
“The data can often be very critical to a case,” Chou told Forbes. “We want to show that we’re advocating on your behalf. But we also want to do right by the spirit and letter of the law.”
Law enforcement typically does not need to go to a court to access information that could identify Google’s users, because of an obscure 1986 statute. Google revealed that only 22 percent of data requests were received as warrants. Instead, law enforcement submit administrative subpoenas because metadata – such as who a person emails – could be useful to their investigations.
While the Department of Justice hasn’t revealed how often it uses subpoenas to obtain user information across sites, the American Civil Liberties Union reported last September a sharp increase in warrantless electronic surveillance of email and Internet communication.
A coalition of privacy advocates and internet companies that include Google wants to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, to limit law enforcement monitoring online. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) passed a bill that would do so last November, but advocates are still looking for a sponsor in the House of Representatives.
