Nearly 21,000 requests made for user data during first half of 2012.
Google says that government surveillance continues to rise with with several bodies requesting for user data more than ever before.
During the first half of this year, Google received 20,938 official requests for user data from governments situated around the globe. The request affected a total of 34,614 accounts, representing a 67 percent increase from the second half of 2009.
The United States was the government who made the most requests for data, with 209 requests being made during the period. Germany, Brazil, Turkey, and France also joined the U.S. in making a considerable amount of requests.
Google has received an increasing amount of requests to remove videos, links and other types of content from its pool of services. The firm said it averaged around 1,000 requests per six months over the past three years. For the first half of 2012, Google received 1,791 such requests from governments, affecting 17,746 items.
"The information we disclose is only an isolated sliver showing how governments interact with the Internet, since for the most part we don't know what requests are made of other technology or telecommunications companies," Google's Dorothy Chou stated. "But we're heartened that in the past year, more companies like Dropbox, LinkedIn, Sonic.net, and Twitter have begun to share their statistics too. Our hope is that over time, more data will bolster public debate about how we can best keep the Internet free and open."
I guess people should be concerned only if you live in the US and you download illegal stuff by the ton and child pornography.
and
"most requests for data, with 209 requests"
If the largest government request is 209 the remainder is obviously smaller numbers.
That makes it difficult to count up to nearly 21,000
The math part in many of the articles leaves a lot to be desired. Makes you wonder what else is reported incorrectly :-(
There are nearly 200 countries in the world, meaning they would average out over 100 each. Just because the highest is 209 does not mean there are not 50 others requesting 208.
Problem?
Ever heard of a bell curve or a standard deviation?
It is VERY unlikely to have this work out. Math again...sorry.
Then there are these inconsistencies...
Examiner.com article Re. Google requests from November 14:
"covering the first six months of 2012, U.S. government agencies made almost 8,000 requests to see private data on over 16 thousand users and accounts"
I can not believe that Google received 'only' 209 all year from the US. That's got to be way too low.
United States (7,969)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/13/google-transparency-report-government-requests-data
Aye.
If 200 countries have requests and each reduces by 1 the further you go down until the last country has 1 request - that is 20,000 requests so the statistical averages work out.
Some of the more developed nations, nations with an active intelligence service, or special interest nations will all have similar figures such as UK, Germany, Japan, Israel, Korea, certain Arab states, the Vatican, etc and will all hovver around the 200 requests mark and will draw away the average from tiny nations with zero requests like Burkina Faso or St Kitts
...
So yes, I think your maths do fail you, there are enough nations and an exact line of constant reduction to make it work, but plenty of wiggle room for some deviation, but nice try attempting to think what you read in a book at college makes you look smarter than other people
You cant do that you cant do this, the only thing you can do is suck air.