Search Engines and Internet Service providers have never released the statistics on how many times the government requests or forces them to hand over user information. Google has now done this. Google is the first search engine to compile a list that provides users with how many times the government request user information or have asked Google to remove content from their site, removed content from their search index and where in the world it occured.
Its called the government request tool. "The answer for U.S. users is 3,580 total requests for information over a six-month period from July 2009 to December 2009." Google has decided to display this information in hopes of eliminating censorship. They are currently censored in 25 countries.
Microsoft has no plans to reveal any statistics in regards to government requests. Yahoo did post the following comment.
"“In support of both user privacy and public safety interests, we do not generally discuss the details of law enforcement demands,” the company said in an e-mailed statement. “As a general matter, Yahoo! Inc. and its subsidiaries around the world receive law enforcement demands relating to only a tiny fraction (less than one one-hundredth of 1%) of the Yahoo! user base."
How user information is stored and shared should be transparent. Google is the first company to provide these numbers but I certainly hope they are not the last.
Email currently loses its legal protection after 6 months but for how long? Lately, Facebook has seemed all too eager to share user information to the public. Facebook no longer demands that 3rd party applications trash user information in 24hrs. They share your information and they continue to extend the duration of time that companies can have access to your information.
We need to have more transparancy in our ISPs, search engines, etc. I want to know where more data is. After i delete an email how long is it stored on Yahoo servers? In this case what users do not know may continue to be....what they don't know.
