Access to data in the cloud --- Florence, they could, with a due process - court order, for specific case, etc. In such cases, GAFAM and other companies in US always cooperate with the law enforcement authorities. I suspect it is similar in many other countries as well.

There are cases, however, when they refuse - or, rather, when they can't - such as when the content stored is encrypted. The case of Apple vs FBI was a famous example. In fact, in order to protect privacy of users (which increasingly demand for it), many companies are turning to encryption of the content transferred to and stored by the users. This makes the whole environment much safer, but also disables LEA to get hold of plain content when needed. But the cooperation between companies and LEA are usually functional.

It is another story when it comes to security services. Unlike LEA, which often need access to only certain information about a certain person in a certain moment, for which they may obtain court order, security sector is interested in surveillance - of many, en mass, and at longer periods. This is where encryption stands in a way in particular, and where big tech object strongly (especially after Snowden's revelations that they secretly cooperated with NSA, so their reputation went down).

It is interesting to observe that, in discussion about encryption, there is difference in arguments and demands by LEA and by the security services.

Source author: Vladimir Radunovic vladar@diplomacy.edu