Google’s most recent Transparency Report was on published July 18th and shows a 29% increase in government requests for user data from 2014 to 2015. These reports appear from the company every six months, and track government requests regarding search engine traffic worldwide, not just in the United States.
Google reported that “usage of our services [has] increased every year, and so have the user data request numbers.” The first half of 2015 saw 40,000 requests relating to more than 81,000 user accounts, an increase from the first half of that year which saw 35,000 requests relating to about 69,000 accounts.
The three countries which led the world in government requests for data were the United States, Ireland, and Germany, to which the government submitted 27, 157 requests, 12,114 requests, and 11,562 requests respectively. Regarding requests submitted by the government outside of the United States, Google released “some” user data for 64% of requests, whereas the company handed over data 79% of the time government requests were submitted in the U.S.
Google is not the only website to offer yearly or bi-annual transparency reports regarding government requests about user data. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) publishes an annual report listing which Internet websites and companies are most effective at protecting their subscribers’ data. Among the entities listed in the report, AT&T and cellphone messaging app WhatsApp received the lowest rankings, garnering only one out of five stars.
In Google’s fifth year on the report, the company received three out of five stars. The EFF expressed that Google showed improvement from previous reports, but said that “Nonetheless, there is room for improvement. Google should take a stronger position in providing notice to users about government data requests after an emergency has ended or a gag has been lifted. Furthermore, Google should provide transparency into its data retention policies.”
Companies like Reddit and Microsoft also released Transparency Reports. The USA Freedom Act, passed in June of 2015 has made it a requirement for technology companies to be transparent when receiving government requests for user information. The EFF still urges tech companies to do even better regarding data which is stored after deletion, and back doors ordered by the government.
