Google Seeks Delay on Data-Sharing Order as It Appeals Landmark Antitrust Ruling 
Elon Musk Shares Bold Vision for AI, Robots, and Space at Davos 
Global DRAM Chip Shortage Puts Automakers Under New Cost and Supply Pressure 
Intel Stock Slides Despite Earnings Beat as Weak Q1 Outlook Raises Concerns 
Micron to Buy Powerchip Fab for $1.8 Billion, Shares Surge Nearly 10% 
Ericsson Plans SEK 25 Billion Shareholder Returns as Margins Improve Despite Flat Network Market 
Morgan Stanley Flags High Volatility Ahead for Tesla Stock on Robotaxi and AI Updates 
Anthropic Appoints Former Microsoft Executive Irina Ghose to Lead India Expansion 
U.S. Lawmakers Demand Scrutiny of TikTok-ByteDance Deal Amid National Security Concerns 
China Halts Shipments of Nvidia H200 AI Chips, Forcing Suppliers to Pause Production 
Tesla Plans FSD Subscription Price Hikes as Autonomous Capabilities Advance 
Baidu Shares Surge After Official Launch of Advanced Ernie 5.0 AI Model 
South Korea Sees Limited Impact From New U.S. Tariffs on Advanced AI Chips 
Microsoft Restores Microsoft 365 Services After Widespread Outage 
OpenAI Launches Stargate Community Plan to Offset Energy Costs and Support Local Power Infrastructure 
Since 2010, Google has been receiving letters from the Federal Bureau of Investigation pertaining to certain users and their information. These letters came in the form of National Security Letter, which is considered a rather indirect form of subpoena. Along with the demand to divulge information, the letters also came with a gag order, which meant that Google couldn’t tell anyone about them, until now.
The gag order was actually lifted back in October, Engadget reports, which Google immediately took as a chance to release one of the NSLs that the company received. This immediately caused a buzz, especially since the parameters with which the letter was released weren’t clearly established at the time.
Now, the conditions have become less vague, which allowed Google to release eight more NSLs sent by separate FBI agencies. The majority of the letters were apparently sent from the FBI field office at Charlotte, North Carolina. The rest came from offices in California, Florida, Arizona, and New York.
The eight letters also contained requests for the release of information on 23 account-holders at Google, with the details restricted to their “name, address and length of service." In the letters released by the tech company, the names of the account-holders were redacted by Google itself in an effort to protect the privacy of said users. Google revealed that the users in question were already made aware of the details of the subpoena as well.
In a blog post, the director of law enforcement and information security at Google, Richard Salgado wrote that the letters were released in order to maintain the level of transparency to which the company is committed. It would also appear that more letters will be revealed in due time.
“In our continued effort to increase transparency around government demands for user data, today we begin to make available to the public the National Security Letters (NSLs) we have received where, either through litigation or legislation, we have been freed of nondisclosure obligations,” the blog post reads.
