Legal enforcement requests for user data from Apple, Google and Meta mean that these companies can decide whether government agencies have access to your personal information, including location data. This means that the companies with the most insight into our lives, movements and communication are frontlinic arbitrators of our constitutional rights and the rights of non-American citizens and a fact that some people probably feel more than ever.
Collaboration between Big Tech and the Trump administration started before Donald Trump sweared on January 20. Amazon, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Uber each gave $ 1 million to Trump's inauguration. Separately, in personal donations, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Apple's Tim Cook did too.
Americans who are worried about the Trump administration and the embrace of Silicon Valley of it can consider being a “digital expat” moving your digital life of the American systems. In the meantime, Europeans are starting to see American data services as “no longer safe” for companies, governments and societies.
Here is a brief overview of the issues of privacy, safety and civil freedoms with regard to the use of digital services established in the US that suddenly feel more urgent and what to do about it.
Coherent
In anticipation of Trump's inauguration, meta-ownership facebook, Instagram and Threads drastic policy changes that coordinates with Trump administration values, to allow hateful speech and abuse “on topics such as immigration and gender.” Meta also signaled his loyalty by dumping his fact checks away and a frequent target of Maga World Ire. Two days after the inauguration, Meta quietly rolled pro-life moderation actions through post-oppression and account suspension. Zuckerberg explained the new direction of the company to the staff and said: “We now have the chance to have a productive partnership with the US government.”
Meta did not respond immediately to our request for comments about its partnership, data exchange or policy changes.
Google followed the example. The company has changed its cards and search results to rename part of the world – the Gulf of Mexico – in addition to a Trump -Executive Order that renamed the Gulf of America, despite the US who claims control over less than 50 percent of the Gulf. Apple and Microsoft also followed Trump's order.
Google's consumer products also received a strip of updates in accordance with the new administration, including further changes in cards, calendar and search. Then Google removed the “forbidden” conditions of the new administration of its Google Health Product. Subsequently, it killed its public promise not to build armed AI tools, such as Project Dragonfly, which was discovered in 2018 to adjust the entire Google platform to make China's aggressive hard performance to its citizens. When he was reached for comment, Google did not respond immediately.
Large technology that matches the Trump administration is important because its business models rely on surveillance and gather our personal data. Meta, Google, Apple and other major technology companies are among the gatekeepers who are between privacy and government requests for user data. Even when technology companies have to satisfy according to the law, they are often still free to decide how much information they collect about people and how long they store the data.
Hand-outs from the government
The current American laws on technology, privacy and government requests have been led by Bulwarks such as the fourth and fifth amendments, statements about the American court and the willingness of technology companies to question the opinion of the federal government that has the right to access our personal information and location data. Apple, Google and Meta have every language about data requests for law enforcement, making it seem like they have our back when it comes to overshalling. Now, with companies that shape certain policy measures, aids and practices when pursuing 'partnership' with the Trump administration, the powers of these companies on our data are taking on new focus.
In general, law enforcement can force US companies to transfer user data with the help of a summons, judicial order, house search order – or in rarer cases a National Security Letter (NSL). As Google explains, an NSL “is one of the authorities granted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).” Google adds: “FISA orders and authorizations can be used to force electronic surveillance and the disclosure of stored data, including content of services such as Gmail, Drive and Photos.” How companies respond to these requirements can vary on the resulting ways.
