This isn't about helping law enforcement. Here's the tell:
Faced with the extended delays under the MLAT process, some countries are
now asserting that their laws apply to companies and individuals outside of
their borders. Countries asserting extraterritorial authority potentially
put companies in an untenable situation where we risk violating either the
law of the requesting country or the law of the country where we are
headquartered.
[...]
We are also seeing various proposals to require companies to store data
within local borders as a means to gain easier access.
It's about two things:
1 - Google doesn't want to be in the middle of Country X and the US where the laws conflict;
2 - More worryingly, countries are requiring data be kept within their borders and hence subject to their laws. This complicates google's business of monetizing people's data.
1 - Google doesn't want to be in the middle of Country X and the US where the laws conflict;
2 - More worryingly, countries are requiring data be kept within their borders and hence subject to their laws. This complicates google's business of monetizing people's data.