Google recently announced that over the last four years, a 120% increase on private data requests from governments had been made. Those requests were significantly focused mainly on sharing important data from the tech giants users.
The increased number of users from Google was said to be the primary reason why the number of requests were becoming higher. Although, the tech giant pointed out that the higher rate, was caused by more governments deliberately exerting their authority to make those requests.
Last year, Google declared that the number of request made around the globe was at 53,356. The tech company again made a petition for the government to create a much better surveillance reform, while they were releasing those data. Google is currently publishing its Transparency Report twice a year, since 2009. Top on the list in terms of requests came from the United States, and this figure did not include the volume of investigations made by the NSA, National Security Agency.
Google made it clear that not all government requests were approved. Records show that only 83% from the 10,574 requests made by the United States, and 69% from the 1,397 requests from the United Kingdom were granted. The company uttered out that laws must also protect private data from government overreach.
"We consistently push back against overly broad requests for your personal information," wrote Richard Salgado, Google's legal director.
Google is also said to have been working with other tech companies in pushing out better surveillance reforms and transparency. It has joined hand in hand with the likes of, Microsoft, Facebook, and Twitter. They all want the right to publish data for national security purposes and also for law enforcement reasons.
Activities from different sectors has also expressed their fear and concern about their privacy rights being overrun by the governments. While state funded hackers were also revealed by Google, who attempted to breach journalists and news organizations.
