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Google Sharing More Private Data With Feds

  • Forbes, Monday, June 18, 2012 10:18 AM

Raising online privacy issues, Google appears to be working closer than ever with government authorities. In the second half of 2011, U.S. government agencies, including law enforcement, put in 6,321 requests with Google for consumers’ private data, according to the latest update to the search giant’s bi-annual Transparency Report. What’s more, Google said it complied at least partially with requests in 93% of the cases.

“That’s up from 5,950 requests in the first half of 2011, and marks a 37% increase in the number of requests over the second half of 2010, when Google received only 4,601 government requests and complied to some degree with 94% of them,” Forbes notes. What’s more, compared with the 3,580 requests for data it received from U.S. agencies in the second half of 2009 -- the first time Google released the request numbers -- the latest figures represent a 76% spike.

“The report’s statistics, which Google voluntarily releases, show a steady uptick in government demand for the private information held by the world’s biggest Internet firm,” Forbes writes. “The numbers may also point to similar increases in requests for other Internet companies to hand over their users’ private data.”

 

 

 

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