Google reveals that user data requests are on the rise

Twice a
year, Google produces a report describing government inquiries for
private individual data. Google claims there are two reasons behind
this discharge of information. First, Google says it highlights the
have to reform current privacy rules. Second, it is a move in the
direction of transparency of data release. Source for this article: Government requests for user data on the rise, says Google

Take a look at the figures

According
to the Google Transparency Report figures, The U.S. Government
submitted 5,950 inquiries for private user data on 11,057 accounts.
That is a 29 percent increase to 4,600 inquiries. Google complied with
most of the inquiries “wholly or partially.” About 93 percent of
inquiries were complied with. There were also 92 inquiries for
information removal covering 757 pieces of content. About 63 percent of
them went through. From the Mexican government, there were 48 data
requests for 73 accounts and there were 50 information inquiries over
75 accounts from the Canadian government. A full accounting of
government inquiries could be found on the full Google Transparency
Report page.

Google is complying

The majority of
the inquiries that Google has to deal with involve taking down
incorrect or offensive material from the government. Anything that
could hurt an investigation may be taken down too. One policy Google
has is to comply with all inquiries done legally. They do have to be a
part of Google Terms and Services too. In each country, these inquiries
are handled differently. While Google does not specifically release the
type of inquiries, some other industries do. Verizon Wireless gets
90,000 information requests each year. Of those, 65,000 are
court-ordered, warranted requests while the others are emergency
requests.

ECPA questions

The Electronic
Communications Privacy Act was originally passed in 1986. This
25-year-old law still regulates all government access to confidential
electronic communications and information. The ECPA allows the
government to request certain electronic communications for the
functions of police force. This Act keeps things private. The Act
allows this. The Supreme Court has not made a decision yet, although
the ECPA has made it hard to determine e-mail messages. Several
individuals want the law to be rewritten. The Digital Frontier
Foundation is one of the groups that are hoping for this.

Articles cited

The Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/1026/Google-and-governments-The-delicate-relationshipCNet: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20125483-83/google-governments-seek-more-about-you-than-ever/Official Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/more-data-more-transparency-around.htmlThe Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/oct/25/google-transparency-report-released?newsfeed=trueTech News World: http://www.technewsworld.com/story/73598.htmlUS Code, Electronic Communications Privacy Act:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/usc.cgi?ACTION=RETRIEVE&FILE=$$xa$$busc18.wais&start=3919965&SIZE=21304&TYPE=TEXT