Google charges law enforcement and other agencies for data search warrant
As an increasing number of request pouring in for the information of its users, Google has started charging law enforcement and other government agencies this month for legal demands seeking data such as emails, location tracking information and search queries.
As per news source, according to a notice sent to law enforcement officials, the fees range from $45 for a subpoena and $60 for a wiretap to $245 for a search warrant. The notice also included fees for other legal requests.
A spokesman for Google said the fees were intended in part to help offset the costs of complying with warrants and subpoenas.
As per Federal law, companies are allowed to charge the government reimbursement fees of this type but Google’s decision is a major change in how it deals with legal requests.
Some Silicon Valley companies have for years forgone such charges, which can be difficult to enforce at a large scale and could give the impression that a company aims to profit from legal searches. But privacy experts support such fees as a deterrent to overbroad surveillance.
As Google has enormous information of billions of users, the law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world routinely submit legal requests seeking that data. In early 2019, the company received more than 75,000 requests for data on nearly 165,000 accounts worldwide. One in three of those requests came from the United States.
The money brought in from the new fees would be inconsequential for Google. The new fees could help recover some of the costs required to fill such a large volume of legal requests.
The requests have become critical as the technology companies have acquired more data and law enforcement has become more technologically sophisticated.
In April, Google had been inundated with a new type of search warrant request, known as geofence searches. Drawing on an enormous Google database called Sensorvault, they provide law enforcement with the opportunity to find suspects and witnesses using location data gleaned from user devices.
Those warrants often result in information on dozens or hundreds of devices, and require more extensive legal review than other requests.
A Google spokesman said that there was no specific reason the fees were announced this month and that they had been under consideration for some time. Reports put out by the company show a rise of just over 50 percent in the number of search warrants received in the first half of 2019 compared with a year earlier. The volume of subpoenas increased about 15 percent. From last January through June, the company received nearly 13,000 subpoenas and over 10,000 search warrants from American law enforcement.
Google will not ask for reimbursement in some cases, including child safety investigations and life-threatening emergencies, the spokesman said.
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