Google complies with data requests
Posted on: 06/18/2012 04:40 PM
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Google has released the censorship requests it has received from governments and government agencies worldwide in the last six months.
Canada asked Google to remove a video of a Canadian flushing his passport down the toilet and the US police wanted a blog that defamed a cop in a "personal capacity" taken down.
Google does not reveal the nature of the requests or the content removed, but several of the requests have been sketched out to reveal some odd preoccupations of different governments.
" We received a request from the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology to remove six YouTube videos that satirized the Pakistan Army and senior politicians. We did not comply with this request."
Requests to Google from the US government and agencies had more than doubled compared to the six months before, Google said. The requests mainly came from courts or law enforcement agencies asking for the removal of content deemed to be harassing or defamatory. One American law enforcement agency asked for 1,400 YouTube videos to be removed for alleged harassment. Google did not comply with the request.
Google also revealed the number of requests for user info that it received per country : a total of 18,257 which pertained to 28,562 users. Governments asked for info that could include search history, Gmail correspondence, or YouTube viewing history.
The rise in data requests was partly due to increased requests from the police who want the information for criminal investigations, Google explained. The American government and associated agencies made the highest number of requests for user data 6321 requests about over 12,000 people and Google complied with 93 per cent of them: the highest rate of compliance for any country.
Canada asked Google to remove a video of a Canadian flushing his passport down the toilet and the US police wanted a blog that defamed a cop in a "personal capacity" taken down.
Google does not reveal the nature of the requests or the content removed, but several of the requests have been sketched out to reveal some odd preoccupations of different governments.
" We received a request from the Government of Pakistan's Ministry of Information Technology to remove six YouTube videos that satirized the Pakistan Army and senior politicians. We did not comply with this request."
Requests to Google from the US government and agencies had more than doubled compared to the six months before, Google said. The requests mainly came from courts or law enforcement agencies asking for the removal of content deemed to be harassing or defamatory. One American law enforcement agency asked for 1,400 YouTube videos to be removed for alleged harassment. Google did not comply with the request.
Google also revealed the number of requests for user info that it received per country : a total of 18,257 which pertained to 28,562 users. Governments asked for info that could include search history, Gmail correspondence, or YouTube viewing history.
The rise in data requests was partly due to increased requests from the police who want the information for criminal investigations, Google explained. The American government and associated agencies made the highest number of requests for user data 6321 requests about over 12,000 people and Google complied with 93 per cent of them: the highest rate of compliance for any country.
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