Google Government Requests

Google yesterday released a new tool that they call Government Requests tool which is a visual representation of the request Google received from government agencies to remove content or provide information about users of their services and products.

The map shows the number of requests that Google has received between July 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009. The numbers are slightly misleading as they refer to single requests which may have asked for the removal of more than one url or disclosure of more than one user.

The data is divided into data requests and removal requests. Data requests ask for information about Google users or products while removal requests ask for content removal in Google Search or other Google products.

The statistics also do not cover all categories of content removal. Child pornography and requests for removal of copyrighted material are not included for instance.

Brazil tops the data request table with 3663 single requests followed by the United States with 3580 requests and the United Kingdom with 1166 requests.

Brazil again tops the chart with 291 removal requests followed by Germany with 188 and India with 142. The United States are fourth in the listing with 123 removal requests.

A click on any country in the list will display additional information about that countries data and removal requests with the removal requests broken down to Google services.

Government requests is only a representation of the requests Google receives. It does not take into account other means of information retrieval or blocking. China for instance is not in the list which is understandable as they block information directly in their infrastructure.

The FAQ contains additional information about the statistics.

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Author: Martin Brinkmann, Wednesday April 21, 2010 -
Tags:censorship, Google, google government requests, google requests, privacy