Google announced that it is now demanding a probable-cause warrant to release data from its services and cloud storage.
Google reported Wednesday that it required probable-cause, court-issued warrants from law enforcement and government agencies to hand over data, something that seems to contradict the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to Wired.
Google announced on its Google Public Policy Blog that 68 percent of the user data it gives to the U.S. government and law enforcement is given without a probable-cause warrant. Only 22 percent of the incidents involved one of these warrants.
The ECPA allows law enforcement to get the data without a warrant if it's been stored for more than six months. This can mean IP addresses, names listed, emails from certain IP addresses or people. However, Google said it holds out for a warrant, which seemed contrary to the heart of the law.
“Google requires an ECPA search warrant for contents of Gmail and other services based on the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which prevents unreasonable search and seizure,” Chris Gaither, a Google spokesman, told Wired.