Google Will Stop Telling Law Enforcement Which Users Were Near a Crime
Google Will Stop Telling Law Enforcement Which Users Were Near a Crime
(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Google is changing its Maps tool so that the company no longer has access to users' individual location histories, cutting off its ability to respond to law enforcement warrants that ask for data on everyone who was in the vicinity of a crime.Most Read from BloombergNe...
Google Will Stop Telling Law Enforcement Which Users Were Near a Crime::(Bloomberg) -- Alphabet Inc.’s Google is changing its Maps tool so that the company no longer has access to users' individual location histories, cutting off its ability to respond to law enforcement warrants that ask for data on everyone who was in the vicinity of a crime.Most Read from BloombergNetanyahu, Under Pressure Over Hostage Deaths, Vows to Press OnMike Johnson May Be the Next House Speaker to Lose His Job‘Underwater’ Car Loans Signal US Consumers Slammed by High RatesUS Navy Shoots Do
There must have been an operational bottleneck with handling the LEOs requests that they decided to prevent the data requested from even existing in order to not be able to reply to such requests. Surely this came down to business and not alturism.
I doubt operational bottlenecks were the issue, more likely the rising volume of requests made Google reassess the policy.
LEOs already press the boundaries of the permissible, and as much as I hate giving props to the big G, good on Google for taking the initiative.
Cops only investigate people they think are guilty, and despite being objectively terrible at their jobs, they have ridiculous amounts of self confidence.
So to them, if they suspect someone of a crime, they can "bend" any rules for stuff like this because "the suspect is clearly guilty anyways, we just don't have proof".
Surely this came down to business and not alturism.
These are not necessarily mutually exclusive ideals.
From time to time businesses will do things that actually benefit their customers in order to keep their business.
Or self preservation.
Regardless of low you look at it, this is great news.
It's not a reason to switch back to Google indeed, but people inside this ecosystem just got a little less surveillance.
Use GrapheneOS and stop giving power to Google. Google is not a friend of the people for offering "free" services, the user is the product and the companies and the surveillance state are the customer.
Surveillance states demand that Google gives all their data, but corps pay Google for all their data
the surveillance state are the customer.
Except it would seem not, since you know this news.
why not? the quote is in the present tense - while article claims Google will change policy
and are you sure this is the only service Google is offering to the surveillance state?
Are there any phones supported that I can install an SD card on?
No, for security concerns GrapheneOS team only support Pixel devices (unfortunately)
Well that's an odd and inflammatory headline to use for the issue
Not really. Google is making this change so they have no way to share incidental bystanders location data when its requested/demanded by law enforcement. Google is the only tech company cooperating with police to provide this type of "geofence/general area" location data.
The change comes three months after a Bloomberg Businessweek investigation that found police across the US were increasingly using warrants to obtain location and search data from Google, even for nonviolent cases, and even for people who had nothing to do with the crime.
Google will change its app so that it can no longer tell law enforcement its users location data, inline with more privacy focused companies like Apple and their maps app. This change comes after years of advocacy from digital rights groups, but appears to be mainly motivated by negative press coverage.
The headline is specifically about what the article is about.
Aha. For sure they won't do that anymore. Nah I won't buy it.
As usual, I have to scroll down more than a page to get past all the generic "Google bad" comments to see any discussion of the topic at hand. Never change, Lemmy.