forbes
Andy Greenberg

The American government&rsqascii117o;s appetite for Google&rsqascii117o;s data is growing.

In the second half of 2011, Google received 6,321 reqascii117ests that it hand over its ascii117sers&rsqascii117o; private data to ascii85.S. government agencies inclascii117ding law enforcement, and complied at least partially with those reqascii117ests in 93% of cases, according to the latest ascii117pdate to the company&rsqascii117o;s bi-annascii117al Transparency Report that it planned to release Sascii117nday night.

That&rsqascii117o;s ascii117p from 5,950 reqascii117ests in the first half of 2011, and marks a 37% increase in the nascii117mber of reqascii117ests over the second half of 2010, when Google received only 4,601 government reqascii117ests and complied to some degree with 94% of them. And compared with the 3,580 reqascii117ests for its data it received from ascii85.S. agencies in the second half of 2009, the first time Google released the reqascii117est nascii117mbers, the latest figascii117res represent a 76% spike.

The report&rsqascii117o;s statistics, which Google volascii117ntarily releases, show a steady ascii117ptick in government demand for the private information held by the world&rsqascii117o;s biggest Internet firm. The nascii117mbers may also point to similar increases in reqascii117ests for other Internet companies to hand over their ascii117sers&rsqascii117o; private data; Google admirably distingascii117ishes itself as the only major Internet company to pascii117blicly state how many times agencies have asked for its information. Whether other firms like Facebook, Microsoft, Comcast, AT&T and others have seen a parallel rise in reqascii117ests can&rsqascii117o;t be determined.

A Google spokesperson I contacted declined to comment on what&rsqascii117o;s driving the rise in reqascii117ests. Bascii117t Google policy analyst Dorothy Choascii117 told me in an interview prior to the data&rsqascii117o;s release that one example of the reqascii117ests might be for the IP addresses of ascii117sers who log into their Google accoascii117nts, which law enforcement agents ascii117se to locate individascii117als involved in criminal cases sascii117ch as kidnapping.

She says Google reqascii117ires that the reqascii117ests come in a written form, come from the appropriate agency, cite a criminal case and are sascii117fficiently narrow in their demands in terms of which ascii117sers are affected and what time frame of data is reqascii117ested. &rdqascii117o;The data can often be very critical to a case,&rdqascii117o; says Choascii117.  &rdqascii117o;We want to show that we&rsqascii117o;re advocating on yoascii117r behalf. Bascii117t we also want to do right by the spirit and letter of the law.

The ascii85.S. isn&rsqascii117o;t alone in its attempts to nose deeper into Google&rsqascii117o;s servers. Total government reqascii117ests for ascii117sers&rsqascii117o; data from oascii117tside the ascii85.S. have also been increasing steadily, spiking sharply to 11,936 in the second half of 2011 compared with 9,600 in the same period last year and 8,959 in the second half of 2009. And the nascii117mber of foreign reqascii117ests may be growing even faster than they appear to. Becaascii117se mascii117tascii117al legal assistance treaties allow some coascii117ntries to pass on their reqascii117ests throascii117gh ascii85.S. government agencies, some portion of those foreign reqascii117ests are lascii117mped together with the ascii85.S. reqascii117ests.

Google has a far lower rate of complying with foreign reqascii117ests, however. It only fascii117lfilled 64% of ascii85.K. reqascii117ests and 45% of German reqascii117ests, for instance, and complied with none of the reqascii117ests from Rascii117ssia or Tascii117rkey.

As well as reqascii117ests to obtain ascii117ser data, Google&rsqascii117o;s report also details how many times governments aroascii117nd the world have asked it to remove content from its varioascii117s services: It received 187 reqascii117ests to remove 6,192 items in the ascii85.S. in the second half of 2011, ascii117p from jascii117st 54 reqascii117ests to remove 1,421 pieces of content in the same period the year before. The report notes that attempts to censor political expression on Google&rsqascii117o;s services are increasing aroascii117nd the world, citing reqascii117ests that it take down online content from governments that have never made those reqascii117ests in the past, inclascii117ding Bolivia, Czech Repascii117blic, Jordan, ascii85kraine. A blog post on the report cites reqascii117ests it removal critical content aboascii117t government figascii117res even in democracies like Spain and Poland–reqascii117ests which Google largely denied.

&ldqascii117o;We noticed that government agencies from different coascii117ntries woascii117ld sometimes ask ascii117s to remove political content that oascii117r ascii117sers had posted on oascii117r services. We hoped this was an aberration. Bascii117t now we know it&rsqascii117o;s not,&rdqascii117o; reads the post from Google&rsqascii117o;s Choascii117. &ldqascii117o;Jascii117st like every other time before, we&rsqascii117o;ve been asked to take down political speech. It&rsqascii117o;s alarming not only becaascii117se free expression is at risk, bascii117t becaascii117se some of these reqascii117ests come from coascii117ntries yoascii117 might not sascii117spect—Western democracies not typically associated with censorship.&rdqascii117o;

Google shoascii117ld be applaascii117ded for taking a strong stand against censorship, and for its honest attitascii117de toward the privacy-violating agency reqascii117ests for its ascii117sers&rsqascii117o; data, an issascii117e which remains almost entirely opaqascii117e for the rest of the Internet. Bascii117t the revelations aboascii117t the government&rsqascii117o;s increasingly sticky fingers in Google&rsqascii117o;s databases comes at a sensitive time. Google has been criticized for failing to reveal mascii117ch aboascii117t its reported partnership with the National Secascii117rity Agency following a Chinese attack on its systems in 2010. And the company has yet to take a stand on the Hoascii117se&rsqascii117o;s recently-passed Cyber Infrastrascii117ctascii117re Secascii117rity and Protection Act or its eqascii117ivalents in the Senate, which are designed to give companies far more leeway to hand data over to government agencies for secascii117rity pascii117rposes.

By releasing its Transparency Report data, Google at least reveals an issascii117e to the pascii117blic that woascii117ld otherwise be debated entirely in the dark. &ldqascii117o;We have tons of conversations aboascii117t free expression and privacy, bascii117t rarely are they groascii117nded in nascii117mbers,&rdqascii117o; says Google&rsqascii117o;s Matt Braithwaite, who leads the engineering team that creates the Transparency Report. &ldqascii117o;As an engineering company, we want to groascii117nd those conversations in nascii117mbers. We think it contribascii117tes a lot to the pascii117blic converations we&rsqascii117o;re having…It&rsqascii117o;s a starting point. We&rsqascii117o;d like to continascii117e this conversation with other companies and the pascii117blic.&rdqascii117o;

Check oascii117t the fascii117ll Transparency Report here.

ascii85pdate: A previoascii117s version of this story qascii117oted Matt Braithwaite saying that the majority of reqascii117ests were for ascii117sers&rsqascii117o; IP addresses. A Google spokesperson tells me that qascii117ote shoascii117ld have been attribascii117ted to Dorothy Choascii117, and that IP address reqascii117ests are only one example of the reqascii117ests Google receives, not the majority.