Governments Googling Google about you more than ever says Google

Google has published its latest “Transparency Report”, the disclosure in which it reveals how many times governments asked it to cough data on users. And this time around there's mixed news. In the “yikes!” column is the fact that governments asked Google for data 40,677 times between July 1 and December 31 of 2015, and asked …

[Anonymous Coward]

They couldof course...

...harvest less data and therefore be of less use to them.

[Nunyabiznes]

Re: They couldof course...

At Lost All Faith:

Hear Hear!

[JimmyPage]

Come on El Reg !

Meaningless figures, unless presented per capita :

Nation per 100,000 population

UK 10.2027338350

USA 7.5666886751

Australia 9.6913142322

India 0.4915938691

Canada 0.2793490238

I suggest a very good way to try to curb the UKs slurpophilia, is to change the headline:

UK MOST RISKY COUNTRY IN WORLD NEW STATISTICS SHOW.

Alternatively, I would suggest that volume of slurping has nothing to do with security and law and order. The US figures seem bear me out.

[Eddy Ito]

Re: Come on El Reg !

The US figures seem bear me out.

Now see here, we have security theater at all our airports and it's wonderful entertainment for the kiddies. As for law and order, we've heard of it, I think it's even on television.

[tom dial]

Re: Come on El Reg !

"UK MOST RISKY COUNTRY IN WORLD NEW STATISTICS SHOW"

Not so: Germany (14.12) and France (11.85) had significantly higher rates.

[Anonymous Coward]

infomration

What's that?

[allthecoolshortnamesweretaken]

Re: infomration

Your daily ration of (dis)information.

[Anonymous Coward]

So...

if i use Yahoo, then i should be under the Governments radar and free to carry on my evil doings?

[Dan 55]

Re: So...

Yes, as will the hackers who break Yahoo Mail's "security".

[Clive Galway]

Nation per 100,000 population

UK 10.2027338350

So 1 in 10,000 ? That's insane.

[Aodhhan]

not really...

If there are 100,000 people in a city, how many of them do you think are likely to be criminals? I'm betting it's a lot higher than the 1:10000 ratio.

[Swarthy]

"If there are 100,000 people in a city, how many of them do you think are likely to be criminals? I'm betting it's a lot higher than the 1:10000 ratio.

Let's see.. according to current trends in anglophonic countries, I would say that the number of criminals in a city of 100,000 would be somewhere in the area of 99,900. The number of serious criminals (IE, kingpins, gang leaders, Bernie Madoff...) would be about 3 or 4.

[Vic]

If there are 100,000 people in a city, how many of them do you think are likely to be criminals? I'm betting it's a lot higher than the 1:10000 ratio.

But this isn't supposed to be about catching criminals, it's supposed to be about catching dangerous terrorists

As soon as we conflate the two - and that is becoming commonplace - we supply the wedge that allows government to see all your private information as soon as you are suspected of littering...

Vic.

[JimmyPage]

Of course what is a "criminal"

except what a government says it is.

[tom dial]

I found it interesting that, e. g., corresponding information about France and Germany were not reported, although they were quite high for the last half of 2015:

France: 4174 requests, for 5126 accounts, with data produced 59% of the time.

Germany: 7491 requests, 11,562 accounts, data produced for 57%.

Population adjusted rates for the full year are 11.85/100K (France) and 14.12/100K (Germany); so 16% higher in France and 38% higher in Germany compared to the UK. The standout in this category is Singapore, with a rate of 82.5/100K