Google says that it is facing immense pressures from governments all over the world for user information. The usual reason to request is criminal investigation says the search engine giant in its latest transparency report. The report is published semi-annually to maintain transparency of its operations pertaining to data.
According to Google, government data requests have shot up 150 per cent in the last five years, and within this year it increased by 15 per cent sequentially.
Bulk of the demand for data comes from western countries, but this year they have received requests from 9 new countries including Egypt, Indonesia and a lesser known British territory, adds the report.
The fact that America’s government demands technology companies to part with information came to light after a former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden blew the lid off in the way the way US collects information about private citizens.
Technology companies within the US are now sore that their business is suffering with companies abroad suspecting that they may be collecting and passing on information to the US spy agencies.
Meanwhile Google has expressed its wholehearted support to a group of leading senators fighting for the USA Freedom Act that would restrict governments’ rights to access data available with technology companies.
Expressing support for the proposed law, Richard Salgado, Google’s legal director for law enforcement said, “Congress should also update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act to make it clear that the government must obtain a search warrant before it can compel a service provider to disclose the content of a user’s communication.”
