Google reports today that government surveillance is on the rise. In the first half of 2012, Google reports there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. The 20,938 requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.
Also in the first half of 2012, there were 1,791 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content. About 1,000 request per year were filed from 2009 to 2011. The first transparency report (2009) was released in 2010.
One particularly interesting report of political significance is the Google Transparency report for traffic — by country (google.com/transparencyreport/traffic).
The United States government holds the lead with the most User Data Requests at 7,969 — a recent sharp increase. The United States government also requests more Google user data than any other government. See User Data Requests for more data.
Google hopes that the Transparency Report and other similar efforts by by other website, such as Dropbox, LinkedIn, Sonic.net, Twitter will help keep the Internet free and open.
See also …
Transparency Report: Government requests on the rise