Technology corporations are providing US authorities with more and more data from their users' accounts. Also from Poland – we read in Wednesday's edition of “Rzeczpospolita”.
The daily reports that, according to findings by Swiss company Proton, over the course of nearly a decade, Google, Apple, and Meta have provided the U.S. government with data from nearly 3.2 million accounts. This includes emails, messages, calendar notes, and files.
“Data stored within the services of American providers can be shared without full user control and in accordance with the law of another country. This is not only a matter of privacy, but also of Europe's digital sovereignty,” warns Proton. Companies agree to as many as 80-90 percent of such requests.
As the newspaper emphasizes, in the second half of 2023 and the first half of 2024 alone (the last 12 months for which data is available), Washington sent around 500,000 requests to big tech companies for data sharing, which is more than all the other members of the so-called 14 Eyes Alliance (an intelligence-sharing agreement that includes Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Australia and Canada).
Raphael Auphan, COO at Proton, argues that as long as big tech companies refuse to implement widespread end-to-end encryption, these vast, private collections will remain open to abuse. (PAP)
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