U.S. leads the world in requests for users' Google data

Government requests for information from Google have increased more than 70 percent in the last three years.

(Credit: Google)

The number of official requests Google receives for information about its users is steadily increasing -- particularly in the United States, which between July and December once again outpaced the world.

In the second half of 2012, Google received 8,476 requests for information, up 6 percent from the first half of 2012. Globally, Google received 21,389 requests for information, up 2 percent from the first half 2012. The number of requests went up even as the number of users affected went down -- a 9 percent decrease in the United States, and 3 percent globally.

The countries making the most requests in the second half of the year were:

• United States (8,438 requests for information about 14,791 users)


• India (2,431 requests for information about 4,106 users)


• France (1,693 requests for information about 2,063 users)


• Germany (1,550 requests for information about 1,944 users)


• United Kingdom (1,458 Brazil requests for information about 1,918 users)


• Brazil (1,211 requests for information about 2,526 users)

With this report, Google is beginning to break down the kinds of legal processes that governments are us... [Read more]