Govt proposes,Google disposes

Google started releasing these country-wise statistics 18 months ago.

Google Inc complied with 79 per cent of the Indian governments requests for private user information in the second half of 2010,but with only 22 per cent of requests for removal of items,according to a report released by the web search company.

Like other technology and communications companies,Google regularly receives requests from government agencies and federal courts around the world to remove content from our services and hand over user data, says the companys web page on its Transparency Reports. Google started releasing these country-wise statistics 18 months ago.

It said it disclosed private user information to the government over 1,300 times in July-December 2010,having received 1,699 requests. When we receive a request for user information,we review it carefully and only provide information within the scope and authority of the request. We may refuse to produce information or try to narrow the request in some cases, assures the FAQ section of a webpage on the company site.

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This is the first time Google is disclosing the percentage of user data requests it has complied with,in addition to the total number of requests received. India is next only to the US (4,601 requests,94 per cent complied with) and Brazil (1,804 requests,76 per cent complied with) when it comes to requests for disclosure of user information,which,according to Google,pertain largely to criminal matters.

For removal of objectionable content,India in that period sent 67 requests covering 282 items a majority of them citing defamation as the reason but only 22 per cent were complied with.

The number of Indian requests cited in the latest report is more than twice the number in the first half of 2010,during which Google complied with 53 per cent of the 30 requests from India to remove 125 items. In the period preceding this,a good number of Indian requests (a total of 142) related to removal of content from the social networking website Orkut,citing alleged impersonation or defamation. This is also the reason for the high number of requests from Brazil (263,the highest) in the second half of 2010.

We received requests from different law enforcement agencies to remove a blog and YouTube videos that were critical of Chief Ministers and senior officials of different states. We did not comply with these requests, says a note on the Google website.

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Google also refused to entertain a request from the Vietnamese government to remove search results for a word containing unflattering depictions of past Vietnamese leaders. The company,however,complied with requests from the Thai government to remove 43 items mocking or criticising the king,from Italy to delete a video that simulated assassination of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi,and from the US to remove 1,110 items from Google Groups relating to a case of continuous defamation against a man and his family.

It should be noted that US requests for removal of content dropped from 128 in the first half of 2010 to 54 in the second half.

Notably,there have been no content removal requests from the Chinese government in the second half of 2010. Google has not disclosed information about requests from China during July 2009-June 2010,stating state secrets. This was before Google started offering the use of its Hong Kong site to Chinese users.