India steps up snooping on Google users
NEW DELHI: In signs of growing Internet snooping by enforcement authorities, India made an average of 15 requests per day to Google to access personal web details of users during JanuaryJune this year.
In terms of the number of requests for web user details during the first half of 2013, India is next to only the US, which made 66 requests a day on an average -- the highest for any country, as per Google’s latest Transparency Report.
The US made a total of 10,918 US India
Germany France UK 2,691 2,311 2,011 1,274 10,918 of such requests to Google during January-June 2013, followed by India’s 2,691, Germany’s 2,311, France’s 2,011 and the UK’s 1,274 and Brazil’s 1,239 in nation’s, which made over a 1,000 user data requests.
Total requests rose by 24 per cent to 25,879 in the first half of this year from 20,938 in the year-ago period. Compared to July-December 2012 it was up 21%. The search engine giant had received 21,389 requests from governments during the period.
In case of India, the number of user data requests rose by 16% to 2,691 in January-June this year from 2,319 in the same period in 2012. Compared to July-December 2012 (2,431 requests) such requests were up by 11 %.
Google publishes data for requests about user details, as also for removal of content on its various platforms, including search, images and YouTube, on a six-month basis.
The company regularly receives requests from governments and courts around the world to hand over user data and the number of such requests has increased with growing usage of its services every year.
The report also comes close on the heels of technology firms coming under pressure following revelations of a secret US government programme which scoops up data from these Internet companies.