'Government Surveillance Is on The Rise,' Says Google
Government demands for user data worldwide from Google have "increased steadily," the search giant says in a new report: "One trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise."
"Government demands for user data have increased steadily since we first launched the Transparency Report," writes Dorothy Chou, Google senior policy analyst, on the company's blog about its latest "transparency report."
"In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts."
The finding comes in the wake of revelations of government email snooping in the case of former CIA director David Petraeus and Paula Broadwell.
U.S. government agencies continue to make the most requests for user data, Google says: 7,969 such requests in the first half of the year. Google says it complied with 90 percent of those requests.
Second to the U.S. in the number of government requests for user data: India, with 2,319 requests; then, Brazil (1,566), France (1,546), Germany (1,533) and the United Kingdom (1,425):
