India second top country to seek users' data from Google

Governments around the globe made nearly 21,000 requests for accessing Google in bid to obtain users' data in the first six months of 2012, with the Indian Government making the second most highest demands, according to a new report.

Governments around the globe made nearly 21,000 requests for accessing Google in bid to obtain users' data in the first six months of 2012, with the Indian Government making the second most highest demands, according to a new report.

Google's Transparency Report, which indicates government surveillance of online lives is rising sharply, showed that the US Government made the most demands, asking for details 7,969 times in the first six months of this year.

'This is the sixth time we've released this data, and one trend has become clear: government surveillance is on the rise,' the BBC quoted Google, as saying in a blog post.

According to the report, the Google data acts as a bellwether for government behaviour around the world, a spokeswoman for the firm said.

'It reflects laws on the ground. For example in Turkey there are specific laws about defaming public figures whereas in Germany we get requests to remove neo-Nazi content,' she said.

France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK are also in the top 10 governments who made requests to Google, the report said.

Here is the list of number of requests made by governments to Google for users' data:

(January to June 2012)

* United States - 7,969
* India - 2,319
* Brazil - 1,566
* France - 1,546
* Germany - 1,533
* UK - 1,425