Google presses for law enforcement to have easier access to overseas data
Washington — Alphabet’s Google will press US legislators on Thursday to update laws on how governments access customer data stored on servers located in other countries, hoping to address a mounting concern for both law enforcement officials and Silicon Valley. The push comes amid growing legal uncertainty, both in the US and across the globe, about how technology firms must comply with government requests for foreign-held data. This has raised alarm that criminal and terrorism investigations are being hindered by outdated laws that make the current process for sharing information slow and burdensome. Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice-president and general counsel, will announce the company’s framework during a speech in Washington, DC, at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that wields influence in the Trump White House and Republican-controlled congress. The speech will urge congress to update a decades-old electronic communications law and follows similar efforts b...
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