The United States
government continues to make the most requests in the world for user
data, with 10,918 requests for 21,683 user accounts during the first six
months of 2013. The United States also has the highest success rate at
getting Google to comply with its requests. The search giant turned over
user information for 83% of the U.S. queries.
India, Germany and France rounded out the top four, each making between 2,000 and 3,000 requests for user information.
In its most recent transparency report, Google has done something different. It now breaks down U.S. criminal legal requests by type,
showing what percentage of the orders are subpoenas, wiretap orders,
warrants, PEN register orders, or emergency disclosures. The majority of
requests were subpoenas, followed by warrants. There were seven wiretap
requests.
The numbers show how the
volume of requests has increased steadily over time. The total amount of
requests from all governments has doubled since Google started tracking
them in 2009.
This is the company's
eighth transparency report since it started publicly sharing the
statistics in 2010. Google has led the way for tech companies with its
transparency reports, which are becoming industry standard. After this
year's National Security Agency revelations, other companies including
Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo and most recently Apple joined in and released
their own similar reports.
The companies have also
petitioned the U.S. government to allow them to publish information on
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests they field. Google
continued to express frustration with the United States government for
limiting what companies can disclose about national security requests.
"We believe it's your
right to know what kinds of requests and how many each government is
making of us and other companies," said Google legal director Richard
Salgado in a blog post.
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