GoogleTransparencyReport
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Government requests for Google data reached new highs in 2015
Governments around the world sent Google 40,677 requests for user data in the second half of 2015, the highest figure the search company has ever posted in its Transparency Report. That's also a significant jump from the 35,365 requests Google saw during the first half of last year (January through June). Similarly, user accounts the company was asked to provide data on reached a record high, 81,311, compared to 68,908 in the first part of 2015. Google was one of the first companies to provide a transparency report around government data requests, starting in 2009, and since then it's spurred others to do the same.
Google Transparency Report shows censorship spike, details takedown requests
Governments are getting nosier than ever, at least if you ask Google. The search firm has already noticed rapidly mounting censorship in recent months, but its latest half-year Transparency Report has revealed a 26 percent surge in takedown requests toward the end of 2012 -- at 2,285 total, more than twice as many as in 2009. Much of the jump can be attributed to Brazil, whose municipal election triggered a rush of anti-defamation requests from candidates, as well as a Russian blacklisting law that allows for trial-free website takedowns. Whether or not the heat dies down in 2013, we'll have a better sense of just what happens when a YouTube request comes down the pipe. From now on, Google will say whether government-based demands to remove videos were based on YouTube's Community Guidelines or were directly linked to regional laws. Google isn't any more inclined to comply with such requests -- it argues those Brazilian clips are free speech, for example -- but we'll have a better sense of just how easy it is for the company to say no.
Google reveals government censorship requests are on the rise
Google's updated its transparency report to show how many times governments worldwide sought to censor search results, drop YouTube videos or look at user data in the second half of last year. Each request is logged and detailed, with the most filings coming from the US, UK and India. The requests varied from censoring a video where a Canadian citizen creatively destroyed his passport (not complied with) through to blogs promoting hate speech and violence (complied with). Mountain View's list makes for interesting reading, but it's not all bad news: where videos were merely critical or satirical of the local authorities, the search giant refused to pull 'em, respecting private citizens right to free speech in a great majority of cases.
