Google says that the number of requests from governments all over the world for user data have more than doubled in the past three years.
The tech company revealed that the U.S. government sent 11,000 requests to Google between January and June 2013, CNET reports. That amounts to 42 percent of the requests made by governments. Coming in second was India with 2,700 requests.
Google wrote in a blog post, "And these numbers only include the requests we're allowed to publish."
Google Legal Director Richard Salgado wrote, "We believe it's your right to know what kinds of requests and how many each government is making of us and other companies. However, the US Department of Justice contends that US law does not allow us to share information about some national security requests that we might receive."
The post noted that requests made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are kept unpublished.
According to ABC News, 83 percent of requests the U.S. government made were complied with. 68 percent of requests were in the form of subpoenas and 28 percent were warrants and court orders.
Several tech companies, including Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, have filed a suit against the Justice Department over allowing them to reveal statistics about requests made from the NSA data-mining controversy.
Salgado spoke during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing: "Google recognizes the very real threats that the U.S. and other countries face today and, of course, governments have a duty to protect their citizens. But the current lack of transparency about the nature of government surveillance in democratic countries undermines the freedom and the trust most citizens cherish."
image: Wikimedia Commons