Google Transparency Report Shows Government Requests Increasing
By Karla Robinson
November 16, 2012
November 16, 2012
- Google began releasing a transparency report semiannually in 2010, hoping to “shine a light on how government actions could affect our users,” the company’s public policy blog explains. The latest report, covering January through June 2012, shows a growing number of government requests for user data and content removal.
- “This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise,” the post says. “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.”
- A graph accompanies the post, showing a gradual increase in government requests for data with a slight uptick in the last year.
- “The number of government requests to remove content from our services was largely flat from 2009 to 2011,” the post continues. “But it’s spiked in this reporting period. In the first half of 2012, there were 1,791 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content.”
- By comparison, the number for the July-December 2011 period was only 1,048.
- “The information we disclose is only an isolated sliver showing how governments interact with the Internet, since for the most part we don’t know what requests are made of other technology or telecommunications companies,” the post states. “But we’re heartened that in the past year, more companies like Dropbox, LinkedIn, Sonic.net and Twitter have begun to share their statistics too. Our hope is that over time, more data will bolster public debate about how we can best keep the Internet free and open.”
No Comments Yet
You can be the first to comment!
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.