ACLU Applauds New Google Information Request Tracking Tool

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2010  – The American Civil Liberties Union is applauding Google’s new tool that tracks and displays the number of government requests that the company receives worldwide.

Google’s Government Request Transparency Tool is able to differentiate between requests for removal of certain content, and requests for private user data.

“With this tool, Google has shed an important and much-needed spotlight on government use of online information” said Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU Washington legislative office. “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.”