Google this week reported a record number of user data requests from global law enforcement agencies during the second half of 2015. For instance, “pen register” rules allow the USA government to collect information like IP addresses or telephone numbers dialed, if the information likely to be obtained is relevant to national security or a criminal investigation. Furthermore, the number of companies engaging in this practice have only increased in number since 2013, when ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked a cache of top-secret documents that detailed how various world governments were “spying” on their citizens and sharing that information with the NSA.
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Google received 40,677 requests for user data between July and December 2015, up from 35,365 in the first half of the year, the company said in its latest bi-annual transparency report.
While the number of data requests has steadily risen over the years, Google has actually reduced the amount of data it’s given out for those requests.
In second place came Germany, with 7,491 requests in the second half of the year (up from 3,903 in the first half of 2015), then France with 4,174 requests (up from 3,489), the United Kingdom with 3,497 (up from 3,146) and lastly, India with 3,265 (up from 3,087).
In 2014, the social news networking service Reddit issued its first transparency report, saying it received 55 requests for user information, including account registration data, log data and content uploaded by users from outside parties.
“For example, this report demonstrates an increase in government requests and highlights the need to ensure that human rights protections are built into surveillance laws worldwide so that privacy rights are interfered with only when strictly necessary”, he said. This should vary from evidence to solve cases, data on a terrorist’s accounts and so on.
If you’re wondering which country made the most requests for user data, you need look no further than the good old United States. Google should take a stronger position in providing notice to users about government data requests after an emergency has ended or a gag has been lifted.
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Since the second half of 2010, Google has reported the percentage of user data requests it at least partially complies with. Earlier this year, President Obama signed the Judicial Redress Act into law, which Google strongly supported. The law creates a process for extending procedural protections under the Privacy Act of 1974 to non-U.S. persons.
