The U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement Tuesday. Google is committed to responding to subpoenas and data record requests that facilitate criminal investigations. and ordered by US courts. The multinational company must comply with the Stored Communications Act (SCA). including when requesting access to data stored on servers located outside the United StatesA situation that has so far hindered the progress of some investigations.
The settlement stems from a dispute that began in 2016 when a judge from the Northern District of California requested data from Google about the BTC-e cryptocurrency platform, which was shut down in 2017 because it belonged to a money laundering and tax fraud scheme. Under the Confidential Communications Act, the company had to accept the petition because it was signed by a judge and there was probable cause, but a Court of Appeals blocked data transfer because most of them were located on computer servers located outside the USA.
In this way, Google only delivered data stored in the North American country until in 2018 the US Congress passed that the law would also apply to data of US companies stored abroad. “This agreement enables Google to maintain the technical capacity and resources necessary to comply with searches and warranties that are critical to federal criminal investigations,” US Attorney Stephanie Hinds of the Northern District of California said in a statement. she said. For this, the multinational company will have an independent professional. oversee data management and compliance with the demands of American Justice.
Similarly, Google will establish a base of employees and engineers dedicated to this legal process and develop a mechanism to systematize access to data required in forensic investigations. According to the Ministry of Justice, The company has already invested more than 90 million In all these reforms, although the agreement clarifies that it respects users’ privacy, it imposes limitations on data access and “does not facilitate the US government’s access to Google user data”.