eLifespaces

Today, Google unveiled a tool [Google Government Request Tool] that shows the public how often individual governments around the world have asked for user information. For years, search engines and ISPs have refused to publicly disclose how many times the law enforcement agencies have forced them to turn over information on users.

Breaking this unwritten code of silence, Google posted the following comment, “Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products. The map shows the number of requests that we received between July 1, 2009 and December 31, 2009, with certain limitations (addressed separately).

Not disclosed by Google was how often the respective governmental groups have asked Google to remove content from their sites or search index, for reasons other than copyright violation. The numbers also do not include the number of people named in the requests, whether Google fought the request, or which products the requests apply to.

Ryan Singel (Wired.com) [Google: U.S. Demanded User...]reported that now that Google has taken this first step, ISPs and other large tech companies no longer can hide behind the excuse that they don’t publish this information because it is not practiced in the industry. This would include companies like Yahoo, Microsoft, Amazon and AT&T.