(TruthAndLiberty.com) – On Wednesday, Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D) warned that foreign governments might be spying on smartphone users through push notifications.
In a letter sent to Merrick Garland, the Attorney General, Wyden revealed that last year his office had received a tip that foreign governments were requesting push notification records from Google and Apple. Wyden’s office had proceeded to inquire with the two companies regarding these allegations only to be informed that under government policy they were not allowed to provide access to this information.
Wyden has now requested the Department of Justice to remove any restrictions that would block Google and Apple from discussing what foreign governments have requested from them. As he argues, users needed to have more information on when the government had asked for access to their data.
He added that the two companies needed to be allowed to be transparent regarding their legal demands, especially regarding those from foreign companies, much like companies are regularly required to notify users regarding other data demands that the government may have.
Wyden continued by writing that these companies needed to be allowed to provide a general insight into whether or not they have been compelled to aid in the surveillance practices of different governments. He added that they should also be allowed to provide statistics regarding all the requests unless a court had gagged them temporarily.
Wyden in the letter called for the Department of Justice to either change or repeal any policies that were currently in place that were blocking the companies from being transparent.
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