Law enforcement now has to pay Google for data scrapes on people

Google has announced that it will no longer be working for free for the government. Yep, that's right; Google will be charging law enforcement for any assistance they provide in recovering data.

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In a new report from The New York Times, Google has released a "Notice of Reimbursement" which states that beginning on January 13th, 2020 or soon thereafter, "Google will require pursuant to statutory authority that government agencies serving legal process on Google reimburse Google for costs reasonably necessary and directly incurred in complying with the legal process according to the following reimbursement schedule:"

To make that sound less confusing, basically what Google is saying is that it will no longer be helping law enforcement pull up data on people as it costs them money to do so. If law enforcement wishes to use Google's data, they will have to pay, and the cost depends on what the type of legal process is. Google has provided a "reimbursement schedule" that lays out what law enforcement will be required to reimburse Google if they decide to use its services.

According to the schedule, Google will charge a $45 fee for a simple Subpoena, $150 for an Order, $245 for a search warrant, $60 for a PRTT order, and $60 for a wiretap order.

A former Google lawyer, Al Gidari, said, "None of the services were designed with exfiltrating data for law enforcement in mind. The actual costs of doing wiretaps and responding to search warrants is high, and when you pass those costs on to the government, it deters from excessive surveillance."