Recent court documents posted by TheVerge shows the arson attempt that took place on August 24, 2020, a day after the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin that led to racist justice protests across the United States. Amid escalating protests, two individuals hurled fire bombs at the back entrance of the Seattle Police Officers Association headquarters.
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The shooting of Jacob Blake sparked strong protests against racist behavior |
Although the building was not significantly damaged in the attack, the incident prompted a strong response from the police during the investigation, including the FBI offering a $20,000 reward for any information related to the effort. arson. Court documents show that the agency also pressed Google to provide information about the two suspects, allowing them to collect location data from Android devices near the arson site.
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Just a day later, Google complied with the request. A Google spokesperson explained its work: “Like all law enforcement requests, we have a rigorous process designed to protect user privacy while supporting important work of law enforcement”.
The use of location data by the police is not new, but the number of geo-referencing orders issued in recent years has increased dramatically. In 2019, New York Timessaid Google served “up to 180 requests” per week. More recently, Google revealed it received 11,033 requests in 2020, up from 941 in 2018.
