Google Calls for Curbs on Government Data Grabs

Company gets dozens of demands for user info every day

Google has renewed calls for tougher safeguards to protect people's privacy online as the Feds come knocking for more emails and cloud-hosted files.

The search giant is part of the Digital Due Process—a coalition including Facebook, Amazon, eBay and HP—that is trying to change the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to give emails and other online documents the same legal protections as personal records kept in one's home.

The internet giant used Data Privacy Day, held yesterday in North America, to announce that it receives "dozens of letters, faxes and emails from government agencies and courts around the world" a day requesting users' private information. We're told that this "typically this happens in connection with government investigations".