Tag: Google

Taking advantage of a recent easing in U.S. sanctions on the export of technology to Iran, yesterday Google announced that it would make its Play Store available to Iranian users.

A month after the publication of its first Transparency Report mentioning National Security Letters (NSLs), Google filed a motion before the Northern District of California to “set aside”–or in plain language, defer–this controversial form of request. Google’s action follows in the courageous legal footsteps of a handful of service providers–including the ACLU’s defense of the Calyx Institute and EFF’s successful petition on behalf of an unnamed client–raising hopes that Google’s suit may finally expose the worldwide reach of NSLs.

Google released its semi-annual transparency report today, indicating an increase in government requests for content removal worldwide–although more than half came from a handful of countries.

It’s not just a style thing: you may have good reason to avoid the geek at the bar or in the park wearing Google’s latest invention, the wearable interface known as Glass. Despite its innocuous intent, the life-logging feature ‘Life Bits’ logs everyone who comes into direct contact with the Glass wearer, transforming them into a mobile recording device.

Government requests for the digital information of citizens around the world are growing exponentially. Google and Twitter revealed that a rising number of countries are using this mechanism to conduct investigations. Requests to Twitter jumped by 20% in the second quarter of 2012. Google also observed a jump of more than 70% of requests since 2009, totaling 21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users in the last six months of 2012.