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U.S. GOVT. LEADS INDIA, EUROs SEEKING GOOGLE INFORMATION |
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from The Privacy Times
The U.S. Government, as well as governments around the world, continue to increase dramatically the number of requests they make for private users’ data, according to Google’s latest “Transparency Report,” which covers the last six months of 2012.
“User data requests of all kinds have increased by more than 70% since 2009,” Richard Salgado, legal director at Google said in a blogpost.
From July to December the U.S. topped the poll with 8,438 requests, 136% higher than the same period in 2009 and up another 6% from the first half of 2009. Google provided the authorities with some data in 90% of cases. India was the country that made the second most requests for information, 2,431 up from 2,319 in the first half of 2012. France, Germany and the United Kingdom complete the top five. During the July through December 2012 period:
- 68 percent of the requests Google received from government entities in the U.S. were through subpoenas. These are requests for user-identifying information, issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and are the easiest to get because they typically don’t involve judges.
- 22 percent were through ECPA search warrants. These are, generally speaking, orders issued by judges under ECPA, based on a demonstration of “probable cause” to believe that certain information related to a crime is presently in the place to be searched.
- The remaining 10 percent were mostly court orders issued under ECPA by judges or other processes that are difficult to categorize.
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Privacy Issues 
