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A project of Common Dreams

For Immediate Release
Contact:

Mandy Simon, (202) 675-2312; media@dcaclu.org

Google Announces New Tool To Track Information Requests From Governments

WASHINGTON

The American Civil Liberties Union today welcomed a new tool
launched by Google to track and display the number of government
requests the company receives worldwide, country by country. The
Government Request Transparency Tool differentiates between requests for
removal of particular content and requests for private user data.
According to the company, there is no way yet to distinguish between the
number of requests that Google did and did not comply with. The ACLU
has been calling on Google and other corporations to disclose this kind
of information for years and hopes it will provide momentum for
reforming the out of date Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

The following can be attributed to Laura W.
Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office:
"With this tool, Google has shed an important and much-needed
spotlight on government use of online information. Americans for too
long have been kept in the dark about how their private information is
stored, used and shared. It is our hope that this tool will help
Americans to better understand the relationship between private
companies and our government.
"The ACLU has called for this type of disclosure for years and
believes it should be mandatory as part of any reform of the Electronic
Communications Privacy Act. Congress should make updating the law a
priority so that other companies will fall in line with Google and allow
for greater transparency when it comes to the government's requests for
our information."
More information on the ACLU's work with online privacy can be
found at: www.dotrights.org
and www.aclu.org/ecpa

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.

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