Google reveals government data and removal requests for the first time

Greater transparency around government requests

In a controversial move, Google has unveiled a new tool which makes public the statistics surrounding government requests to the company for private user data or content removal. The corporation announced the decision on the official Google blog, stating the need for 'greater transparency around government requests.'

The tool, aptly named Government Requests, offers the data in map form whereby each individual country is tagged with the relevant information. Users are able to view both the number of data requests and the number of removal requests per country, along with specific details of the removal requests such as the type of content involved or how far Google has historically complied with the demands. The results for the United Kingdom are shown in the image on the right.

Less censorship

The decision to make this information public is being hailed by those at Google as a necessary step in guarding against the dangers of censorship. The blog post announcing the tool cites Article 19 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, which concerns freedom of expression and information, and urges that these rights be maintained with regards to the Internet – 'the most important means of free expression in the world.'

"Government censorship of the web is growing rapidly: from the outright blocking and filtering of sites, to court orders limiting access to information and legislation forcing companies to self-censor content," says David Drummond, Google's Chief Legal Officer. "The vast majority of these requests are valid... However, data about these activities historically has not been broadly available. We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship."

The tool marks another milestone in the on-going battle between Google and China which has led Google to withdraw its services from the country after disagreements over online censorship. Instead of the correct data tag for China on Government Requests, Google displays a question mark and a brief statement explaining that the information cannot be provided as it is regarded by China as a state secret.

Google has announced that the next information update for Government Requests may be expected in six months.