Google, Facebook and Apple will tell users when they are spied

The biggest name in the I-game: Google, Facebook, Apple and so on requested the US government, a few years ago, the permission to notify users when they receive a federal data request. Bored of waiting any answer, I-companies plan to go further claiming users have the right to know when their personal data is targeted by federal authorities.

Authorities are not pleased bu this measure. Thousands of American users are under federal surveillance each year and their data is taken without their knowledge. Now, prosecutors warn a move like this could potentially tip any criminal activity and give some persons of interest time to destroy evidence and flee.

Google already updated its privacy policy, while the other giant companies will do the same in the next period. This will leave federal authorities without the right to demand data seizure without legal authority from a judge.

The US Justice Department was the first to react on these measures took by Internet giants. “These risks of endangering life, risking destruction of evidence, or allowing suspects to flee or intimidate witnesses are not merely hypothetical, but unfortunately routine,” said the department's spokesman, Peter Carr.

Tech and communication companies followed in recent years a pattern of cooperating with law enforcement. Mobile carriers typically did not inform customers when investigators collect data. The same thing happens in the cyber world. Twitter was probably the first major company to notify users over this, but in recent years Google, Apple and Facebook started doing the same thing. These three I giants are working together to elaborate some type of similar privacy policy. “Later this month, Apple will update its policies so that in most cases when law enforcement requests personal information about a customer, the customer will receive a notification from Apple,” said the company spokesman Kristin Huguet.