Exhibitors of the Google company work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany,in this April 17, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, file)
Update: In response to questions regarding how, when and why Google hands over information to government agencies, the online organization published a report today detailing what information is available to law enforcement officials, and what they need to access it.
The published information followings the company’s “Transparency Report,” which revealed statistics regarding how many times Google complied with government requests for user information.
(MintPress) – Data released by Google shows the search engine website complies with U.S. government requests for users’ data 88 percent of the time.
The Google Transparency Report shows that from July to December of 2012, federal and local agencies issued more than 8,430 user data requests, applying to more than 14,700 users.
Information was requested — and obtained — as part of a subpoena, warrant or other reasons not specified. A look at the numbers shows 10,390 requests were made through subpoenas, while more than 3,150 were requested by warrant. That leaves roughly 1,250 requests made for “other” reasons.
Worldwide, Google received 21,389 government requests over the last six months of 2012, with the U.S. leading the count. This is the largest data request load the search engine has experienced, up 17 percent from the same period one year ago. The United Kingdom (U.K.) government made just shy of 1,460 requests — 70 percent were granted. Russia’s government made 97 requests, with only 1 percent of such being granted.
So, what’s the reason for the requests?
Google does not specifically give reasons for data requests, pointing inquiries to this website: digitaldueprocess.org, where the evolution of the Electronics Communications Privacy Act, created in 1986, is explained. Google Policy Analyst Dorothy Chou told Forbes Magazine that law enforcement agencies will often request IP addresses of users of criminal interest who log into Google in order to track locations.
Google does, however, include in its Transparency Report data related to removal requests and subsequent reasoning.
“Governments ask companies to remove content for many different reasons. For example, some content removals are requests due to allegations of defamation, while others are due to allegations that the content violates local laws prohibiting hate speech or adult content,” the report states.
In terms of content removal, the largest portion of requests were made under the argument of defamation of character, accounting for 39 percent. Such requests were given through the court system and police or through executive orders. The report states that in the U.S., five requests were made to remove YouTube videos that were critical of government agencies. Google indicates it did not comply with such requests.