A new Transparency Report from Google indicate that the number of government requests to hand over user data or remove public information has increased. In the first six months of this year Governments around the world made around 20,000 requests to hand over information.
“This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise. As you can see from the graph below, government demands for user data have increased steadily since we first launched the Transparency Report. In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.” said Dorothy Chou, Senior Policy Analyst at Google in his blog.
Top 10 countries requests for users data:
| Country |
 User Data Requests
|
Percentage of data requests fully or partially complied with | Users/Accounts Specified |
|---|---|---|---|
|
7,969
|
90%
|
16,281
|
|
|
2,319
|
64%
|
3,467
|
|
|
1,566
|
76%
|
2,640
|
|
|
1,546
|
42%
|
1,880
|
|
|
1,533
|
39%
|
2,007
|
|
|
1,425
|
64%
|
1,732
|
|
|
841
|
34%
|
1,054
|
|
|
531
|
52%
|
1,037
|
|
|
523
|
64%
|
841
|
|
|
423
|
35%
|
917
|
Since Twitter, LinkedIn, Dropbox, and Sonic.net started publishing stats on government requests Goole think its data is “only an isolated sliver” of the actual number of Internet-related requests that governments make. “For the most part we don’t know what requests are made of other technology or telecommunications companies” Google said.
As Dorothy Chou said “Our hope is that, over time, more data will bolster public debate about how we can best keep the Internet free and open” we hope the same.