Report: Gov't Is Watching You More Than Ever, Often Without A Warrant

[marmar]

Law enforcement is asking Google for its users' data more than ever -- and most of the time, they aren't getting a warrant first.

That's the takeaway from a Wednesday update to the Google Transparency Report with information that breaks down for the first time how often the FBI and local cops use a subpoena, as opposed to a warrant, to snoop on Google users' information.

From July to December 2012, Google revealed, the company received 8,438 total requests for information about 14,791 users or accounts in the United States. Requests were up 34 percent from 2011 to 2012.

Google has been disclosing requests from law enforcement for the past three years, making it one of the few email providers to do so. In that time, the number of requests has steadily ticked up -- no huge surprise, according to the company, since it has more users and more data. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/google-transparency-report_n_2537153.html

[xchrom]

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