Google has published their transparency report on July 18, Monday, which contains information about how much governments all over the world request user data from their online database.
The purpose of the report, which can be found in Google's website, is to inform users about the transparency of governments when it comes to the privacy of people's lives and data. Google believes that it's its responsibility to publish reports like this.
Google has spearheaded and pioneered the battle of the internet giants, which include Facebook, Apple, and Reddit, against governments for protection of their user data. The first action taken by Google has triggered these other huge websites to publish similar reports about the governments.
"Google is proud to have led the charge on publishing these reports," Richard Salgado, Google's legal director for law enforcement and information security, posted on his blog in July 18, Monday. This helps enlighten users about government surveillance laws and practices.
The report made by Google displays the number of inquiries made by governments all over the world. The United States government is at the top of the list, having made 12,523 requests on 27,157 users. So far, this is the record-breaking rate of inquiries made in a single year since they have been publishing transparency reports since 2009.
The giant tech company is the first to promote transparency and has asked the FBI for permission to publish this information to bolster the evidence of their assertions. They believe that this is protection for users who wish to see the activities of their own governments with these internet companies.
After Google started publishing their reports, Twitter followed in 2012 and Facebook in 2013, stirring a serious trend of these huge companies that they will remain open to the people with regards to government policies and laws to prevent anything shady.
Pinterest and Reddit followed after Facebook and Twitter, but they didn't have huge numbers compared to Google in their transparency reports. Amazon's chief information security officer has also claimed in a report that they were constantly receiving government subpoenas for data information, and there were some that they believe were overboard.