An eye on data, governments increase Google requests for information

The internet is, without a question of a doubt, a vital part of most people’s existence, from people working in forensics, to those involved in ethical hacking and cyber security professionals who keep on top of threats and/or the latest security measures against such activities.

And Google is, perhaps, the dominant player in this virtual arena, at least from a purely search point of view – the dominant search engine by a long shot. That’s putting it lightly, it is, in any case, a master in other areas, like statistical analysis (Google Analytics); social media, and relevant to this post, in the art of data collection.

The American multinational corporation, which was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, recently released its biannual transparency report, which it does, and I quote, to “ensure that we maximise transparency around the flow of information related to our tools and services”.

The most fascinating thing about this report is that government requests, from the UK to the US to China and all the rest – for Google to pass on data is increasing. With regards to the UK, the tech organisation reported a massive 71 per cent rise in content removal requests from the British government and its police force. The reason for moving such information is down to national security issues, a bid to preserve information security.

A Home Office spokesman explained the government’s action as a response to online extremists or hate content, which it takes “very seriously”.

“Where unlawful content is hosted in the United Kingdom, the police have the power to seek its removal and where hosted overseas, we work closely with our international partners to effect its removal,” the spokesman said.

In response, Google said that it had had fully or partially complied with 82 per cent of these requests.

It’s an intriguing insight into the ‘hidden backroom’ conversations going on all the time between Google and various governments, in what is a very sensitive area. We value information security and risk management as much as any other organisation, but we have to be careful that such actions don’t filter into unjustified censorship.

That’s why Google’s transparency report is such a good thing – it lets the world see what’s going on and what governments are doing. Accountability, transparency and, of course, maintaining high levels of information security with sensitive and private data is inherently important after all.