Google vowed that it will now not instantly reply to Hong Kong authorities’ information requests after the Chinese authorities imposed a safety regulation in June 2020, however it seems the corporate made a handful of exceptions. The Hong Kong Free Press reports Google supplied “some data” for 3 out of 43 requests from Hong Kong authorities within the second half of 2020. One was for an emergency the place life was in danger, whereas one other two involved human trafficking.
The web agency pressured that neither of the trafficking requests had been linked to nationwide safety, and had been backed by signed search warrants in addition to Google’s worldwide coverage on requests. None of the three handovers concerned content material. However, in addition they weren’t made beneath a treaty with the US Justice Department that Google stated can be vital for requests going ahead.
The responses aren’t utterly sudden. Attempts to pursue circumstances by the treaty might take months. It simply would not be lifelike to feed pressing, non-security requests by that system.
Nonetheless, this illustrates the issues Google and different tech giants (together with Facebook and Twitter) have whereas making an attempt to disengage with China over the safety regulation and, extra just lately, privateness regulation modifications. While the businesses can stall requests, an absolute refusal to conform could also be troublesome with out leaving Hong Kong completely.
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