30 June,2011 11:31 AM IST | | ANI
Authorities in Britain are more likely to request details about internet users than in any other country, Google has revealed
The online search engine's transparency report showed that in just six months, British intelligence agencies, police and other government bodies asked the company to hand over data 1,162 times, the Daily Mail reports.
When population sizes are taken into account, the figure puts Britain second in a table of 26 developed countries.
Singapore, which has been condemned by human rights groups for its authoritarian regime, topped the table while Australia came third with 345 requests and France came fourth with 1,021 requests.
The US was placed fifth in the table with 4,601 requests for information in the second half of last year, the paper said.
According to the paper, Britain asked Google to remove content 38 times, including one request by the Office of Fair Trading that more than 93,000 adverts linked to fraud were taken offline.
That compares to 118 content removal requests from Germany and 263 requests in Brazil, which topped the table.
Google has said that their report would shine some light on the appropriate scope and authority of government requests to obtain user data around the globe.
