back to article Google: Gov demands for YOUR web data up 70% in just 3 years

The hunger for more and more user data demanded from Google by governments around the world showed no sign of abating, according to the company's latest figures. Google said in its "Transparency Report" that requests from authorities had climbed in the second half of 2012. For the first time since the company started …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not a cyber-mug. Now't on me guv!

    1. LarsG
      Meh

      I wonder how many times they request information from other Governments, I wonder how many times they get it?

  2. ratfox
    Alert

    "US government far ahead"

    If you read the text above the table, you will note that requests counted as coming from the US government also include requests made on behalf of other governments. It is a detail worth mentioning.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: "US government far ahead"

      If you read the text above the table, you will note that requests counted as coming from the US government also include requests made on behalf of other governments. It is a detail worth mentioning.

      It is worth mentioning, but mainly because it is more worrying to think that the US government is invading the privacy of its citizens on behalf of other nations....

  3. Code Monkey
    Mushroom

    Your government is spying on you

    Whichever party they represent, do not trust these bastards!

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Google...

    So, what, they're just looking at peoples search terms via Google? I don't get it. What if you don't use Google for any nefarious activities? How is asking Google going to help anyone?

    As if anyone would use Google for searches relating to illegal activity. Everyone knows it's the greatest boon for the authorities no? Why the hell would anyone use Google for anything illegal? I'm confused. And if they did, surely it would be from an IP not legally connected to themselves in any way.

    1. Steven Roper

      Re: Google...

      Google searches don't have to be illegal to be of interest to goverments, or as evidence in a court case. For example, consider how a woman might be prosecuting her ex-husband for stalking her. If the ex-husband looked for her on Facebook or Googled her name on a frequent basis the woman's lawyers could use that to bolster her case. Likewise, a person accused of piracy might be shown to have Googled "[latest movie/song title] torrent" - which is not an illegal search in and of itself, but it wouldn't exactly help their defence in court. And if you think nobody ever searches for torrents on Google, you're missing quite a lot.

      I would wager that the large majority of these searches are more to do with divorce, domestic proceedings, and copyright infringement type cases, than "spooks" from three-letter agencies snooping on John Citizen. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the actual reasons cited for the retrieval orders, rather than just raw numbers of subpoenas and warrants.

  5. vic 4

    UK 4th?

    Given that the US had 8500, the UK 1500 and the fact that the number of requests / population the UK wins easily

    1. Gannon (J.) Dick

      Re: UK 4th?

      Google "Idiots who can't do math, by Country" and you'll see your error.

      1. vic 4

        Re: UK 4th?

        My apologies, don't know why but I thought there where 6x the amount of people in the US to the UK. I should have checked my figures, apparently it's more like 5x.

  6. Don Jefe
    Meh

    Disclosure

    I wish it was possible to find out if any of the search requests were directed at you and who the requesting agency was.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If Google didn't collect so much data then governments wouldn't have so much data to request.

  8. Schultz
    Happy

    Not so great Britain

    In the statistics, Germany is ahead of Great Britain. Just like in soccer.

    But the compliance rate in Germany is far lower (some 40%), so either the Germans place a lot of bogus requests, or it's a case of 'Achtung what'? Kind of not like in soccer.

    Go ahead, kick me until I stop smiling.

    1. Alan Edwards

      Re: Not so great Britain

      Germany has data protection and privacy laws that weren't written by Facebook and actually mean something.

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