The U.S. and the U.K. inked a cross-border data access agreement, enabling law enforcement agencies from both countries to speed up the process of gathering electronic data needed to combat crime.
The agreement will "considerably" reduce the time it takes to access data related to serious crimes such as terrorism and cyberattack, the U.S. Justice Department said. Currently, gathering such information takes up to two years.
The new accord will enable agencies, with proper authorization, to directly contact tech companies in the other country to access data.
The agreement is not expected to take effect until early 2020, the Financial Times reported.
Meanwhile, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia urged Facebook Inc. not to push ahead with its plan to adopt end-to-end encryption across its messaging platform "without including a means for lawful access to the content of communications to protect our citizens."
According to a joint letter to the social media giant, Facebook has not committed to address the countries' "serious concerns" about the impact of the proposal on "vulnerable citizens."
