The U.S. and the U.K. have signed a first-of-its-kind agreement that will allow law enforcement agencies in the countries to access data from tech companies more quickly in criminal investigations.
for evidence in cases related to terrorism, child sexual abuse and other serious crimes. U.S. officials will also be able to receive access to British communication service providers.
Currently, authorities must go through government agencies to access such evidence from companies, which the officials said can take "years.
The agreement will go into force once approved by lawmakers in the U.S. and U.K. It was reached as part of the CLOUD Act, a law enacted in 2018 that allows the U.S. to enter bilateral agreements with other countries to access electronic data stored overseas. The new agreement will not, however, prevent tech companies from encrypting data on their platforms. End-to-end encryption, which already exists in some apps like WhatsApp and Signal, means that only users sending and receiving messages can see them.
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