https://techcrunch.com/2018/03/18/report-police-are-increasingly-asking-google-for-area-based-user-data-to-solve-crimes/
For years, marketers have been using Google to find out more about their customers. Google can provide marketers a window into the search and consumption patterns of their customers. However, marketers are not the only ones using Google to work more intelligently; now the police are using Google to find criminals and solve crimes.
In Raleigh, police presented Google with warrants for information on mobile device activity from crime scenes. The request was not for search history, but for account data from Google Android devices and any devices running location-enabled Google apps within geographies around two different crime scenes. The data that the police sought from Google contained anonymized numbers and not specific texts or emails.
This is not unprecedented; police departments and courts from across the country have relied on Google for information that can assist in criminal matters. According to Google, it receives disclosure requests for approximately 80,000 users every six months and provides data roughly 65% of the time it is asked to do so. Although Google does not disclose what kind of data it releases, their cooperation with law enforcement on these matters is well documented.
Although data sharing may well solve crimes and prevent future terrorist attacks, this newer trend will certainly concern Fourth Amendment advocates who claim that it violates user privacy and subjects people to unreasonable searches. This is yet another example as to how the lines between privacy and protection can blur. One is left to wonder how future lawmakers will balance the needs of law enforcement with the privacy rights of individuals as they intersect with services like Google.
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