In 3 Years, Government Requests for Google User Info Doubled

One type of Google search has been particularly popular during the past three years: government requests for user data.

Legal requests for user information by world governments have doubled, while requests by the U.S. government have tripled, according to the Google's updated transparency report

"This comes as usage of our services continues to grow, but also as more governments have made requests than ever before," reads a Google blog post announcing the report. "And these numbers only include the requests we're allowed to publish."

The report compares the six month period from January to June of this year to a six month period between July and December of 2009. It also shows which countries made the most requests. India, Germany and France follow the U.S. with a huge margin Read more...