Google has seen a tremendous increase in requests for information made by the government, the company revealed in an update to its Transparency Report today. The updated report includes the number of requests made during the second half of 2013, and Google notes in its blog post announcing the news that total requests are up 120 percent since Google first began publishing these numbers.
Google admits that its total user base has increased as well over that time, but also says that more governments around the world are making requests than ever before. The new Transparency Report now also shows governments that made fewer than 30 requests during a six-month period, which were previously excluded from the document.
Also, it’s worth noting that the percentage of requests that have resulted in Google actually providing some data has declined even as the total number has increased, and now sits somewhere around 70 percent, instead of the 75 percent plus that it used to reward with info back when it first started reporting its compliance rate. To answer when and how it does both receive and comply with requests, the company produced the explainer video above, which is almost too cute to be addressing such a serious topic, but somehow manages to stay just fair I think.
Yahoo also has its second transparency report up, if you’re interested in seeing how other Internet companies are handling the rising influx of inquiries about user information.