Google reports a 19% jump in US government data requests
Google reports a 19% jump in US government data requests
By Zach Miners
IDG News Service | Sep 15, 2014 4:15 PM PT
Google fielded 19 percent more requests from the U.S.
government for data on its users in the first half of this year compared to the
second half of last year, the company said Monday.
Of the 12,539 requests it received, the firm produced
user data in around 10,000 of those cases, Google said in its latest
transparency report, which tallies government data requests from around the
world and Google’s response to them. The majority of those requests came in the
form of subpoenas and search warrants.
Google employs a nuanced approach for determining how to
comply with government data requests, which usually pertain to content and
non-content information stored across Google’s services like Gmail and YouTube.
Worldwide, the number of total data requests Google
received rose by about 15 percent to 31,698, the company reported. Outside of
the U.S. , Germany , France
and India
led other nations in the number of requests made.
The increase in government data demands comes after more
than a year of revelations about massive government surveillance programs,
notably in the U.S.
Despite the revelations, some countries have expanded their surveillance to
reach service providers outside their borders, Google said.
The aforementioned figures don’t include the number of
requests received under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which
can require companies to hand over personal data for national security cases;
or National Security Letters, which ask for non-content information like names
and addresses.
As it stands now Google and other tech companies can only
report those figures in vague ranges. Due to a six-month reporting delay,
Google did not give a range for the FISA requests, but it’s been in the 0-999
range since 2009.
The company said it received 0-999 National Security
Letters for the first half of 2014, like in previous years.
Google, in its report, urged for legislative reform to
let it be more transparent, and reign in bulk data collection by authorities.
For one, Congress should enact the USA Freedom Act to let companies say more
about the numbers of national security requests they receive, it said.
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