Really almost all the top comments on this topic are people overreacting to the headline without realizing that the circumstances involved are emergencies and not just routine LE requests. Clickbait has ruined everything.
Fine, every routine LE request is now an emergency. Because one thing US LEOs are known for is their reserve in only requesting just the absolute minimum to do an investigation.
They'll try to notify users? After their data has been shared with police.
Well that's reassuring.
If Google had a magic system for getting information to a kidnapping victim reliably, they wouldn't need to share user's private data with law enforcement, they could just share the information on where to reach the kidnap victim.
What this will predominantly be used for is abusive partners, who also happen to be law enforcement officers (police) to terrorise their victims, or, more generally, abuse of powers by LE.
Here in Australia the police already have 30% more domestic violence charges than the average, and have been caught way too many times abusing their powers as LE.
Also, a cop doing this would leave a trail of evidence of their irrefutable guilt.
You're being hyperbolic.
Not at all - it's merely somebody's _claim_ that there's some danger.
FWIW, anyone still doing business with Google probably has a relatively high trust of Google, so that comparison is probably closer to equivalent than many might imagine for Google's users.
Every supposed attempt to protect you is really just an attempt to justify an inherently unethical business model because it is profitable.