Google Publishes Censorship Map

Dupe? by Monkeedude1212 · 2010-09-21 09:31 · Score: 1

I Remember hearing about this months ago, but I can't imagine hearing it anywhere else but here...

Dupe by Dynedain · 2010-09-21 09:31 · Score: 2, Informative

Where have I seen this before? Oh yeah, on slashdot almost exactly 5 months ago.

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I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....

Re:Dupe by Jeff+DeMaagd · 2010-09-21 09:44 · Score: 5, Informative

Yes and no. This looks like a new report, of the same kind, for a different time period. Five months ago, the report covered the second half of 2009, this report covers the first half of 2010.
Re:Dupe by slshwtw · 2010-09-21 09:45 · Score: 0, Redundant

What's new is that there is now more detailed information available through the tool (see the BBC article for a better run-down).
For instance clicking on the USA results in:

United States
4287 data requests
128 removal requests, for a total of 678 items
82.8% of removal requests fully or partially complied with

* AdWords

o 1 court orders to remove content
o 1 items requested to be removed

* Blogger

o 8 court orders to remove content
o 45 items requested to be removed

* Geo (except Street View)

o 2 court orders to remove content
o 2 items requested to be removed

* Video

o 1 court orders to remove content
o 1 items requested to be removed

* Groups

o 7 court orders to remove content
o 394 items requested to be removed

* Web Search

o 30 court orders to remove content
o 2 non-court order requests to remove content
o 66 items requested to be removed

* YouTube

o 31 court orders to remove content
o 46 non-court order requests to remove content
o 169 items requested to be removed
Re:Dupe by vux984 · 2010-09-21 09:45 · Score: 2, Insightful

5 months ago it didn't have data for the first six months of 2010. ;)
Re:Dupe by commodore64_love · 2010-09-21 09:57 · Score: 4, Interesting

>>>United States
>>>4287 data requests
I'd like to see this same information broken-down State-by-State, so we can see which states are most censoring. I'm betting New York and California and Pennsylvania are near the top, given their previous activities.
As for China, I wonder how long it will be until someplace like Australia or Canada decide "Hey that's a good idea" and declare takedown request to be state secrets.

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Re:Dupe by slshwtw · 2010-09-21 10:00 · Score: 1

Another interesting feature is the traffic graphs by country and service.

For instance, check out the usage of 'Google Groups' in China here (set the zoom to "Max"). I'm guessing the usage spike was due to the 10th anniversary of the banning of the Falun Gong belief system.
Re:Dupe by grub · 2010-09-21 10:07 · Score: 5, Interesting

As for China, I wonder how long it will be until someplace like Australia or Canada decide "Hey that's a good idea" and declare takedown request to be state secrets.

I checked the map, interesting Canada has less than 10 (!)

World of difference the border between the US and Canada makes.

--
Trolling is a art,
Re:Dupe by Abstrackt · 2010-09-21 10:12 · Score: 4, Funny

World of difference the border between the US and Canada makes.
Yeah, the temperature is like 50 degrees lower.

--
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 10:27 · Score: 5, Informative

There are probably many more U.S. demands than are reported by this tool.

As for China, I wonder how long it will be until someplace like Australia or Canada decide "Hey that's a good idea" and declare takedown request to be state secrets.
Read about National Security Letters. Since 9/11, these have been a popular method for American government agencies to evade public and judicial scrutiny during investigations. The very existence of a particular NSL cannot be disclosed legally.
NSLs are not reported by Google. They are our very own homegrown version of China's "state secret" demands. If you are served an NSL, and you tell someone of that fact, you can face jail time (merely for discussing its existence).
Re:Dupe by kikito · 2010-09-21 10:34 · Score: 2, Funny

Temperature's 50 degrees lower just like IQ is 50 points higher.
Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 10:49 · Score: 0

Wouldn't New York & California naturally be at/near the top, simply because they've got large populations. What's important is the ratio of population to requests.
Re:Dupe by treeves · 2010-09-21 11:37 · Score: 5, Funny

That's only true on occasion, when it happens to be 72.5 at the US side of the border and 22.5 right over the border in Canada.

--
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Re:Dupe by Beardo+the+Bearded · 2010-09-21 11:52 · Score: 1

That's our Privacy Office. It's against the law to violate someone's privacy up here. (You can look up details if you care, it's a close-enough 10-word summary.)
Our ISPs don't log where you've been, but they do log what IP they gave you at a given time. They can't snoop in your files.

--

---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Re:Dupe by Abstrackt · 2010-09-21 12:12 · Score: 1

Temperature's 50 degrees lower just like IQ is 50 points higher.
Of course, that's how I managed to make such a clever comment eh!

--
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
Re:Dupe by amRadioHed · 2010-09-21 12:15 · Score: 1

I'm betting New York, California, and Pennsylvania are near the top because they're among the most highly populated states. I would be interested in seeing the per capita numbers, those numbers would make comparisons much more revealing. For instance while the US has the highest total number of take-down requests, per million people the US has about 14 requests compared to the UK which has about 22 request per million people.

--
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 13:58 · Score: 0

They can't snoop in your files.
I guess that depends if you consider DPI to be snooping. Already in use at some Canadian ISPs (my ISP, Eastlink, is one of them).
Re:Dupe by jc42 · 2010-09-21 14:40 · Score: 1

... when it happens to be 72.5 at the US side of the border and 22.5 right over the border in Canada.
Too bad I used up my mod points earlier; I'd have given you a "funny".
I do wonder how many Americans would understand the joke. Probably less than 1%. For that matter, I wonder what fraction of the American readers of /. got it. I'd hope it's over 1%, but I wouldn't bet on it.

--
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Re:Dupe by donscarletti · 2010-09-21 15:01 · Score: 1

As for China, I wonder how long it will be until someplace like Australia or Canada decide "Hey that's a good idea" and declare takedown request to be state secrets.
Australia had 200, Canada less than 10. Enjoy your freedom with that.
Times like this I can't help but think of the thousands of Canadian patriots and Indian warriors who fought and died rather than to be conquered by a slave owning and native massacring nation. Wherever truth and liberty truly are, they will be remembered.

--
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Re:Dupe by JoshuaZ · 2010-09-21 15:16 · Score: 1

I'd like to see this same information broken-down State-by-State, so we can see which states are most censoring. I'm betting New York and California and Pennsylvania are near the top, given their previous activities.
The first of those two states are states which have high populations. So you would expect a lot of requests related to those states even if they were doing the same thing as the other states. Pennsylvania also has a large pop although not nearly as much. (California is the most populace state with 36 million people (about 1.5 times the size of the next largest. New York is the third most populous state with around 20 million people, and Pennsylvania is the 6th most populated with around 13 million. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_population).
However, looking at the actual interactive map, which can be found at http://www.google.com/governmentrequests/ (and is not linked to in the summary or TFA. Great job, Slashdot and BBC), there seems to be only a very weak correlation between the size of a country and the number of requests. I am confused a bit about some of the things on the map, such as the decision to list Puerto Rico separately from the US.
Re:Dupe by Dhalka226 · 2010-09-21 16:16 · Score: 1

I got it, though I didn't find it funny as much as clever.
Re:Dupe by nmos · 2010-09-21 16:19 · Score: 1

Disclosing the details of any individual NSL is illegal but I've never heard of it being illegal to disclose statistics of the number of NSLs served.
Re:Dupe by Delarth799 · 2010-09-21 16:44 · Score: 1

Not really. See I believe the thing with China is the requests came in so often and frequently they are still having trouble trying to calculate the massive number of requests. So the other countries just have to start sending millions of requests all the time making it harder for Google to calculate the exact number quickly.
Re:Dupe by shutdown+-p+now · 2010-09-21 17:45 · Score: 4, Interesting

At least in cases of some NSLs that we became aware of, NSL stated that even disclosing its existence is illegal. Disclosing the number of NSLs served would, quite obviously, disclose their existence.
I also recall reading that some organizations in US have taken the approach of regularly posting something like "no NSLs have been served this months". This way, if one month they don't post anything, you know what happened.
Re:Dupe by Anubis+IV · 2010-09-21 17:56 · Score: 1

Likewise. It's not exactly a complicated joke, and if you communicate with anyone from outside the US, you're likely at least a little familiar with the general range for "normal" temperatures in Celsius.
Re:Dupe by treeves · 2010-09-21 18:18 · Score: 1

1%? Gosh, I hope it's more than that. Oh, you're probably right. I'm odd in that (among other things) I feel equally comfortable expressing temperature in Fahrenheit and Celsius.
Anyway, it's my second arithmetic-dependent joke in as many days.

--
...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
Re:Dupe by ContentCharacter · 2010-09-21 18:24 · Score: 1

>>>United States >>>4287 data requests
I'd like to see this same information broken-down State-by-State, so we can see which states are most censoring. I'm betting New York and California and Pennsylvania are near the top, given their previous activities.
As far as U.S. states are concerned, I'd place my bet on one where public libraries are required by state law to install internet filtering on public PC's.
Re:Dupe by N1AK · 2010-09-21 19:53 · Score: 1

I believe it was libraries. I think they took exception to the government asking for records on who was borrowing books under NSLs. Not being from the US (and being too lazy to do proper research) I can't vouch that it actually happens.
Re:Dupe by emj · 2010-09-21 20:07 · Score: 4, Informative

And here it is Googles transparency report instead of a useless article with no links. Interesting that Germany and the US have the same amount of take down requests..
Re:Dupe by sodul · 2010-09-21 21:43 · Score: 1

I've lived in the US for about 10 years and I still do not grok the non-metric system. To me 32 degrees is quite warm. I kinda can understand 1-2 inches, 1-2 gallons, 1 to 100 miles. But I have no idea what an oz is (both kinds), what 33 gallons are, or what 50k miles are; to me they're all Library of Congress units.
Something that really gets under my nerve is when I try to compare prices by weight the store label is per oz on one product and per lb on the other one. Even worse they're usually wrong anyway.
At least it seems the average american does not grasp *any* unit of measurement anyway, so I can't feel to bad.
Re:Dupe by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2010-09-21 23:24 · Score: 1

If you really want "punching above their weight"(given relative internet penetration rates) what is going on in Brazil? Is that all just because it is one of the few markets where Orkut ever went anywhere?

Singapore is also running pretty high, per capita; but they've always been very open about their 'Statist with a smile' policy...
Re:Dupe by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2010-09-21 23:34 · Score: 1

China is only really notable because of the uniformity of their blackout-blackout. I strongly suspect, for instance, that Google's US totals do not refer to anything conducted through "National Security Letters" in any but the most oblique terms. It's just that there are dozens to hundreds of other parties using more public means, who do show up in the totals and keep them from being eerily empty.

Ironically, if China actually gave a fuck about world opinion(and if the parts of "world opinion" who mattered weren't jerking off behind the tinted windows of their up-armoured SUVs at the thought of being like China...), it would probably be a much better PR strategy to let, even encourage, Google to report takedown and request numbers for a broad swath of assorted petty crimes. No information available makes them look super creepy, regardless of exactly where on the creepy scale they fall, while a few thousand fully public; but wildly banal, info/takedown requests a year would just make them look a touch petty.
Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-22 01:45 · Score: 0

It would only disclose them as part of a group, indistinguishable from other takedown notices.
Also, the technique you're speaking of was quite popular in Bosnia for detection of F-117's. They used the background radiation from radio/TV/cell-tower transmissions and looked for holes in it. The same goes for "stealth" NSL's - create noise about where they're not, and where there's no noise, there they are.
It's a technique the US government is going to have to learn one of these days.
Re:Dupe by operagost · 2010-09-22 04:23 · Score: 1

I've seen Red Green, so clearly that's not the case.

--

Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-22 04:46 · Score: 0

Sorry, I've done it too. The BBC puts links below the story, in a place I usually ignore. It was there, though.
Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-22 07:41 · Score: 0

So in theory all that has to be done is to have corporate policy be that information requests to IT be logged for purpose and management are the only people who can make the request. Thus attemptint to divulge the information request to the people who would actually carry it out would be impossible.
Brilliant!
Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-26 07:47 · Score: 0

Thanks good tip..

Really, editors? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 09:31 · Score: 5, Informative

You link to an article talking about it, but not the source link? http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/

Re:Really, editors? by Grizzley9 · 2010-09-21 10:27 · Score: 1

That was irritating, neither the summary or the linked article had actual links to the map itself. Can't let them click away from the site and all...
Re:Really, editors? by KlomDark · 2010-09-21 10:37 · Score: 2, Funny

Weird, the pin for the US is point almost exactly to where I grew up. Almost creepy!
I wonder what they know now that I used to know then, before they erased parts of my memory back in 1989?
Re:Really, editors? by amRadioHed · 2010-09-21 12:18 · Score: 1

The BBC article had a link to the map beneath the article, but yeah the link wasn't as prominent as it should have been.

--
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Re:Really, editors? by TheDarkNose · 2010-09-21 13:56 · Score: 1

You lived on the border between Kansas and Nebraska? You must have ASKED for the memory erasure! ;)

--
"Obviously, you need to be an Einstein to navigate the Austrian Patent Office website." - platinumrat
Re:Really, editors? by elrous0 · 2010-09-22 01:37 · Score: 1

they erased parts of my memory back in 1989
That wasn't the government, it was the alcohol.

--
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.

for the impatient by fringd · 2010-09-21 09:31 · Score: 0, Redundant

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/

Re:for the impatient by The+MAZZTer · 2010-09-21 09:33 · Score: 4, Informative

For the super-impatient, a link you can click!
Re:for the impatient by MRe_nl · 2010-09-21 10:00 · Score: 2, Informative

And, to put a quick end to this thread, the answers to all (y)our questions;
http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/faq.html#governmentrequestsfaq

--
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
Re:for the impatient by shikaisi · 2010-09-21 22:27 · Score: 1

I live in China. I tried your link and got the message "Not Found. The requested URL /transparencyreport/governmentrequests/ was not found on this server." I wonder why?

--
No left turn unstoned.
Re:for the impatient by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · 2010-09-21 23:40 · Score: 1

Invisibility is the ultimate refinement of transparency, comrade!
Re:for the impatient by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-22 10:24 · Score: 0

'q' and 'g' are hard to tell apart when they're underlined.

Maybe by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 09:32 · Score: 0

Perhaps the Chinese don't bother asking Google for information, and just check their huge database of every Chinese citizen's Internets traffic for all time. ;)

Map link missing... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 09:32 · Score: 0

Too bad the article does not contain a link to the actual map.

Re:Map link missing... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 10:49 · Score: 0

Unless it was added later, there is a Related Links section below the article. Doesn't jump out and bite you though.

Interesting by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 09:32 · Score: 0

China just uses cctv in your house to look at what ur doing

Re:Interesting by amRadioHed · 2010-09-21 12:26 · Score: 3, Funny

While it's true a government operated CCTV can be found in the homes of most Chinese people, I don't think it is what you think it is.

--
We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace

Yo dawg by selven · 2010-09-21 09:33 · Score: 4, Funny

I heard you like censorship so I censored your censorship map...

Re:Yo dawg by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 09:36 · Score: 0

I heard you like posting so I put a post in your post so you can post while you post.
Re:Yo dawg by Un+pobre+guey · 2010-09-21 09:38 · Score: 1

And I'll raise you: In Soviet Russia censorship censors.. um...
Re:Yo dawg by Monkeedude1212 · 2010-09-21 09:46 · Score: 1

So you can Bleep while you bleep?
Re:Yo dawg by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 11:14 · Score: 0

In Soviet Russia, Censorship is Data!
I mean, in Google.
Re:Yo dawg by suomynonAyletamitlU · 2010-09-21 12:16 · Score: 1

I heard you like [CENSORED] so I [CENSORED] your [CENSORED]...
[CENSORED] that for you.
Re:Yo dawg by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 18:04 · Score: 0

Let me help you there,
"In Corporate America, censorship censors -CENSORED-."
Now isn't that bet*^&%$.......CARRIER LOST
Re:Yo dawg by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-22 01:37 · Score: 0

You know, you're lucky you're good at (BEEP) my (BEEP) or I'd never put up with ya. You know what I'm talking about, when you (BEEP) lubed-up (BEEP) toothpaste in my (BEEP) while you (BEEP) on a cherry (BEEP) Episcopalian (BEEP) extension cord (BEEP) wetness (BEEP) with a parking ticket. That is the best!
Re:Yo dawg by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-22 03:11 · Score: 0

In Communist China, censors google you?

I wonder by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 09:40 · Score: 0

Does it have street view too?

The new part... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 09:41 · Score: 0

...is the traffic tracking. See usage per country per service. Pretty neat.

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/

Trust? by nurb432 · 2010-09-21 09:44 · Score: 3, Insightful

Chinese officials consider censorship demands to be state secrets so we cannot disclose that information at this time," said Google.

So tell me why we should believe anything they say?

--
---- Booth was a patriot ----

Re:Trust? by Monkeedude1212 · 2010-09-21 09:49 · Score: 1

Who is they? Google, or China? ...
Ah, trust, the foundation of Knowledge... Have you ever been to Kahzakstan? Can you confirm it's existance?
It could all be a clever ruse, you know. Everyone you've ever known could be lieing to you.
Re:Trust? by commodore64_love · 2010-09-21 10:02 · Score: 1

>>>Everyone you've ever known could be lieing to you.
I still don't believe the United States of Europe exists. http://www.amazon.com/United-States-Europe-Superpower-Supremacy/

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Re:Trust? by lordmetroid · 2010-09-21 10:12 · Score: 1

I can only conclude from your hyperlink that the United States of Europe does not exists as your hyperlink simply returns a 404 Not Found HTTP status code.
Re:Trust? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 10:15 · Score: 5, Informative

Worse: it's not only China.
According to other sources, National Security Letters (NSLs) from the U.S. government are not reported by Google.
NSLs are issued with gag orders preventing their disclosure. They're essentially a method of bypassing the standard judicial process, instead using a system more closely resembling the Chinese government's secrecy. For Americans, they should be much more of a concern than the Chinese officials' "state secrets."
Source:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/09/google-government-requests-rise/
Re:Trust? by number17 · 2010-09-21 13:57 · Score: 1

Why do they even bother putting a question mark beside China when they only report one country in Africa? I could have sworn they had the internet in South Africa. Maybe im wrong.
Re:Trust? by Ltap · 2010-09-22 01:36 · Score: 1

It's not based on usage, it's based on takedown requests. If there have been no takedown requests, the country isn't on the map.

--
Yet Another Tech Blog
(but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
Re:Trust? by commodore64_love · 2010-09-22 04:36 · Score: 1

Really? Amazon.com doesn't exist for you? Where do you live? The dark zone of Tibet?

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Re:Trust? by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-23 03:32 · Score: 0

Gods dammit, Troll64, you linked to a product that doesn't fucking exist!

[Amazon logo]
Looking for something?
We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site
Go to Amazon.com's Home Page
Seriously, could you be any more of a Troll?

This doesn't make sense at all. by d474 · 2010-09-21 09:47 · Score: 3, Insightful

When the Government asks Google for information about a user, how is that "censorship"? It may be a violation of privacy, but it's not censorship unless Google admits that the government then used that information about the user to censor their online activities. Of course, I did not RTFA. I prefer to censor myself ;P

--
Authority questions you. Return the favor.

Re:This doesn't make sense at all. by Americano · 2010-09-21 09:59 · Score: 1

It's a tally of government requests that they've received - some of those requests were for the removal of data, so I guess that part (the minority, incidentally - 128 requests for data removal, versus ~4300 requests for user information) is censorship, but the vast majority of these requests is for user data, probably largely for police investigations.
Slashdot likes to use big purple conspiracy words to generate a few more clicks on the link. "Google updates Transparency Report with 1H-2010 government request data" just isn't as sexy and provocative a title.
Re:This doesn't make sense at all. by YA_Python_dev · 2010-09-21 10:03 · Score: 1

When the Government asks Google for information about a user, how is that "censorship"? It may be a violation of privacy, but it's not censorship unless Google admits that the government then used that information about the user to censor their online activities.
The user now lives in a very small room with no windows and no internet access. Does that counts as "censoring their online activities"?

--
There's a hidden treasure in Python 3.x: __prepare__()
Re:This doesn't make sense at all. by Entropy98 · 2010-09-21 13:03 · Score: 1

The map also includes information like Iran blocking Youtube.

--
windows codec pack
Re:This doesn't make sense at all. by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 13:50 · Score: 0

They use the access to the data as a way to threaten people. If I knew google is giving out information about me to my government (i.e. Iran government), I might not be able to post a single critic of the shit happening there.

Map of evil by edxwelch · 2010-09-21 09:47 · Score: 1

they should colour-code it so we can see a world snapshot of evil ;)

My first thoughts by Ishkibble · 2010-09-21 09:50 · Score: 3, Interesting

My first thoughts are 'this is great'. Google claims "don't be evil" so it better live up to it. Money corrupts a corporation and since they have gone public that has been called into question. I have an android phone and i happily let Google track me, i let them keep my email, my photos, my digital life, the least they can do is put out something like this. This map is not for me though, its for the average Googler who doesn't fully understand how Google collects and keeps and uses personal data.

US aked for user information 4,287 times by commodore64_love · 2010-09-21 09:50 · Score: 1

We have met the enemy.

He is us. (Or rather our leaders.)

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall

Re:US aked for user information 4,287 times by poity · 2010-09-21 10:11 · Score: 1

"Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien."

--
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Re:US aked for user information 4,287 times by cgenman · 2010-09-21 15:54 · Score: 1

Considering there are about 310,306,840 people in the US, the chance of any one person having been queried by the US government to google in a given year is only one in 72,000. While I'm cautious of government intrusion into private matters, that's hardly 1984.

--
The ______ Agenda
Re:US aked for user information 4,287 times by commodore64_love · 2010-09-22 04:39 · Score: 1

Considering there were about 25 million living in 1940s Germany, the chance of any one person being rounded-up & led to a deathcamp in any given year was only 1 in ~100,000 so why worry about the problem?

--
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall

Where are the percentages? by CannonballHead · 2010-09-21 09:53 · Score: 4, Interesting

They give the map with actual numbers, apparently, right?

I'd be more interested in what percentage of data that Google COULD get asked about is actually asked about.

Otherwise, it's like saying that I killed 300 cows whereas my neighbor only killed 1. Well, it just so happens that my herd is 300x as big, too... a more understandable reading would be the percentage of cows killed per herd.

Re:Where are the percentages? by ADRA · 2010-09-21 10:26 · Score: 1

Pardon Me? Does Google segment data based on nationality? The origin of the individual(s) being investigated have no bearing as to their nation of origin, or are you more interested in just the raw population numbers of the country? Exactly what type of correlation are you trying to build? A given nation's government officials are probably don't limit their requests to simply inner-nationals, so wouldn't that make the proportion of people / size of community / etc.. numbers irrelevant compared to information requests as a whole? The raw number in itself tells us how motivated a given government is in policing or investigating the actions of individuals on or using the internet.

--
Bye!
Re:Where are the percentages? by CannonballHead · 2010-09-21 10:53 · Score: 1

These are requests to Google for information to either remove content or for disclosure of "user data."
There is no correlation between what, say, the US can actually ask for/receive and how many requests Google gets.
Assume, for example, DMCA. Raw numbers aren't as useful as DMCA vs. "Copyright Holdings" percentages/correlations. If you have one copyright and I have two, you might expect me to issue twice as many DMCAs as you do because I have more holdings.
Perhaps I'm misunderstanding just what a given country CAN request of Google.
Re:Where are the percentages? by Monkeedude1212 · 2010-09-21 10:55 · Score: 1

They give the map with actual numbers, apparently, right?
I'd be more interested in what percentage of data that Google COULD get asked about is actually asked about.
I'm not sure Data would really work like that. How many times do you think google COULD be probed for information? Wouldn't that number be somewhere in the high googols?
Re:Where are the percentages? by Anubis+IV · 2010-09-21 18:02 · Score: 1

Ya know, you could've just said "per capita" and we'd have all understood. And if you just wanted to use a random analogy, it should've been about cars.
Re:Where are the percentages? by kj_kabaje · 2010-09-22 01:05 · Score: 1

Absolutely--mod this up. A higher percentage of internet users is also a factor. Controlling for this and somehow standardizing (logit, z-score or whatever) would be much more informative.

you know what would have been great? by Nadaka · 2010-09-21 09:56 · Score: 1

If you had linked to the map and not just an article about the map. The article doesn't even have a link to the map.

Re:you know what would have been great? by owlnation · 2010-09-21 10:27 · Score: 1

If you had linked to the map and not just an article about the map. The article doesn't even have a link to the map.
TFA does actually have a link to the map -- however, you'd easily miss it. It's at the bottom of the article, as a related link. The BBC's layout for stuff like this is appalling. What the actual point of the map image accompanying the article is, is also hard to figure out, since it's illegible and incomplete.

There's also considerable irony in a State-run Broadcasting corporation reporting on censorship. Considering it is something the BBC has been known to do itself.

It is also interesting that the BBC, as the World's largest news organization, is so on the ball that it is reporting something 5 months late. But then... it very, very rarely ever breaks a story, or has an exclusive (unless it's from another BBC investigative documentary team who don't work for BBC News). Does make you wonder where all that UK public money is being spent, and why it is being spent, when mostly all BBC News does is just recycle press releases.
Re:you know what would have been great? by moortak · 2010-09-21 12:07 · Score: 1

This news isn't five months old, the data isn't even that old. You may be thinking of the last time Google updated the transparency report.

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Xavier Rabourdin for president 2012

What happened on Feb 25 2010 ? by equex · 2010-09-21 09:59 · Score: 3, Interesting

Look at the Traffic chart ( http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/ ) Seems to be a huge peak and after that general activity falls quite a bit compared to before that date ?

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Can I light a sig ?

Re:What happened on Feb 25 2010 ? by Mashiki · 2010-09-21 10:20 · Score: 1

I actually found that more interesting for Canada. See you have lots of traffic here until the first holiday in May. Once that happens, and it's the May 24 weekend, summer officially starts even if there is snow on the ground still. Ah winter, how you drive us indoors when you don't make us free outdoors.

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Om, nomnomnom...
Re:What happened on Feb 25 2010 ? by equex · 2010-09-21 10:37 · Score: 1

I see your point but if you look at the data with Max zoom (forgot to mention that), it's a completely different world after 02/25 (for US, Google Search). It's not nearly that clear for Canada.

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Can I light a sig ?
Re:What happened on Feb 25 2010 ? by hechacker1 · 2010-09-21 11:40 · Score: 1

The Olympics happened?
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/searching-for-gold-during-games.html

Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by losttoy · 2010-09-21 09:59 · Score: 3, Informative

United States 4287 Brazil 2435 India 1430 United Kingdom 1343 France 1017 Germany 668 Italy 651 Spain 372 Australia 200

Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by poity · 2010-09-21 10:14 · Score: 1

And how many non-democracies allow Youtube (or even internet access) at all?

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your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by h00manist · 2010-09-21 10:17 · Score: 4, Interesting

Not all of them
Canada ............. 10

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Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 10:21 · Score: 0

Democracy does not always equal freedom, or vice versa. Democracy can at best be freedom for the majority, or for _independent_ (i.e. non-governmental) money interests. Freedom comes from the laws on the books and the vigilance of the general public. Democracy is only teh way to get those laws.
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by glwtta · 2010-09-21 10:30 · Score: 4, Funny

Canada ............. 10

Yeah, but that's like 1 for every 10 Canadians.

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sic transit gloria mundi
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by Experiment+626 · 2010-09-21 10:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

If a democratic government doesn't like what you are looking at online, they take it down.
If a totalitarian government doesn't like what you are looking at online, they take YOU down.
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by T+Murphy · 2010-09-21 11:38 · Score: 1

They were probably waiting for Google to translate their services to Canadian before filing too many complaints.

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My webcomic
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by rubycodez · 2010-09-21 11:52 · Score: 1

ah, so they're spying on the sober ones....
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 12:10 · Score: 0

It says "10" for me. Details state that "87.5%" of requests were full/partially complied with. So I'd say the exact figure is 8 total requests, 7 of which were complied with.
However, if you skip back to "July 2009 to December 2009" (the default timeframe is january to june of this year) the numbers are a little different:
41 data requests
16 removal requests
43.8% of removal requests fully or partially complied with
Blogger
1 non-court order requests to remove content
Groups
2 court orders to remove content
Web Search
1 non-court order requests to remove content
YouTube
12 non-court order requests to remove content
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 12:24 · Score: 0

Not all of them
Canada ............. 10
That's just because the rest of their requests went to googleh.com
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by Scrameustache · 2010-09-21 12:55 · Score: 1

Not all of them
Canada ............. 10
U.S.A. 128
There's about ten times as many people in the U.S. as in Canada, so they have comparable removal requests. The spying on citizens numbers are many to none though.

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You can't take the sky from me...
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by Capsaicin · 2010-09-21 13:12 · Score: 1

Biggest democracies, biggest culprits
Yes I was just looking at the map and thinking, the places that have no markers on the you wouldn't want to live. Not that all of the places marked (eg. China) you would want to either.
As far as the raw numbers you quote, how to they pan out when expresses as a meaningful metric such as take-down request per 100,000 population. Or some metric that also takes general internet access into account? I somehow doubt the biggest democracies would still emerge as the biggest culprits.
Even more interesting, would be to see the latter compared to some index of how liveable to particular country is. Not that I would want to suggest that there might be some optimum level of government censorship. That would be heresy and would no doubt see me censored, err modded, into oblivion. ;)

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Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 13:47 · Score: 0

Mod this guy up! Everyone knows that Canadians really do speak another language.
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by elrous0 · 2010-09-22 01:42 · Score: 1

No. If that were the case, Ireland's numbers would be much lower.

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SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Re:Biggest democracies, biggest culprits by rubycodez · 2010-09-22 02:42 · Score: 1

that's only because in Ireland the government monitors are drunk too

State Secrets by hondo77 · 2010-09-21 10:05 · Score: 4, Interesting

"Chinese officials consider censorship demands to be state secrets so we cannot disclose that information at this time," said Google.

Somewhere in Washington, D.C. or nearby Virginia, someone in a cubicle just said, "Ooh, good idea!"

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I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.

Re:State Secrets by T+Murphy · 2010-09-21 11:45 · Score: 1

...and hopefully someone who knows that person will read a slashdot post about hitting people on the head with a sledgehammer and say "Ooh, good idea!"

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My webcomic
Re:State Secrets by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 13:13 · Score: 0

Already done.

Google: Internet freedom is declining by h00manist · 2010-09-21 10:11 · Score: 1

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/09/21/google.transparency/ Its's only going to get worse. Fully free speech is not really supported anywhere. Society is full of injustice, and those forces are coming to bear on the InterWebs as it starts to affect them in real terms. In Brazil the government is starting to issue digital certificates for all companies and persons, so far compulsory only for certain companies. With widespread biometrics and certificates, things can certainly become very controlled and difficult to even hack, which in any case isn't really openness and democracy. Using of anonymity to do not-too-smart and decent things doesn't help very much. The countries which do constitutionally allow anonymity help a lot.

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Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/

China goes "meta" by hessian · 2010-09-21 10:13 · Score: 1

We censored the information about our censorship, therefore we do not censor.

***

I thought it was interesting that democracies are the ones asking most frequently. It's possible that's because non-democratic states already know via other means. It's also possible that democracies are less stable.

***

Another thought is that this is only one view of the situation. If the USA asked for censorship information 4,287 times and that enabled them to catch pedophiles/terrorists/enslavers 4,214 times, we're all doing pretty well by that outcome.

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Futurist Traditionalism

Re:China goes "meta" by h00manist · 2010-09-21 10:23 · Score: 1

USA asked for censorship information 4,287 times and that enabled them to catch pedophiles/terrorists/enslavers 4,214 times, we're all doing pretty well by that outcome.
Washington DC is just bursting with joyful smiling good guys in shining armor on a white horse galloping to save you and your family from the bad guys.

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Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
Re:China goes "meta" by Dan667 · 2010-09-21 10:34 · Score: 4, Insightful

they generally yell "think of the children" when they are taking away your rights so how can you tell?
Re:China goes "meta" by Cimexus · 2010-09-21 11:51 · Score: 1

I think it's actually because democracies are MORE stable. Most democracies are first-world countries and hence are more 'organised'. They have established processes and institutions to deal with this kind of stuff. Whereas if you are a less developed country, your government probably has bigger concerns on its plate - e.g. 'how do we prevent ourselves getting thrown out in a coup next week?' or 'why is everyone starving?' or 'why haven't I received as many bribes this year?'. They probably don't even have a government department that really cares about what's on the Internet ... it's just not as much of a priority.
That covers the 'non-democratic, but not really 'evil'' countries. As for the real dictatorships, as you say, they already know via other means ;)

And you are correct by wsanders · 2010-09-21 10:33 · Score: 2, Funny

In their FAQ, Google states "the statistics primarily cover requests in criminal matters".

However, we don't let that interfere with our paranoia, or else the Terrorists win.

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Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"

Why China is missing by bob8766 · 2010-09-21 10:58 · Score: 2, Funny

Chaina is missing due to a Google bug. They coded it with an INT32, but they really needed an INT64 for China

Inaccurate article title by Caerdwyn · 2010-09-21 11:09 · Score: 1

Requests for user information is not censorship, as speech is not being blocked. It is being traced to its origin. The map is a "spy on your citizens" map, NOT a censorship map. Different thing.

Potentially every bit as bad, but let's use accurate terminology. The "scare you into accepting draconian laws" people use distortions and bad use of emotionally loaded terms; it's one of the things that makes them evil. Journalists calling information requests (lawful or otherwise) "censorship" shows the journalist to be, shall we say, uneducated about what they say they are qualified to report upon. And people coming up with article titles on Slashdot really, really need to RTFA and get their titles right.

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Everybody gets what the majority deserves.

Re:Inaccurate article title by moortak · 2010-09-21 12:10 · Score: 1

The map also has an information removal listing for each country. That pretty clearly falls under censorship.

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Xavier Rabourdin for president 2012

Traffic report for Singapore end of May 2010? by wyoung76 · 2010-09-21 11:33 · Score: 1

Looking at the 6 month traffic report for Singapore, what happened towards the end of May and onwards? There's a precipitous drop in traffic for the unencrypted Google Search traffic down to less than half the pre-June traffic levels.

Three China Policy by fibonacci8 · 2010-09-21 11:34 · Score: 1

I like that Mainland China holds state secret status, but both Taiwan and Hong Kong are listed in the 2010 update of the report. Gratuitous addition of the keywords reunification, Tibet, and "grass mud horse" added for seasoning.

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Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.

For Flash Sites Add iOS Users by wrightrocket · 2010-09-21 11:36 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Flash sites should be included as censored, as far as iOS users are concerned.

Re:For Flash Sites Add iOS Users by wrightrocket · 2010-09-21 11:41 · Score: 1

Flash sites should be included as censored, as far as iOS users are concerned.
Oops, jumped to add this comment, and wish I could delete it, since it has nothing to do with a country's request for censorship.

Why China is missing by dhyanesh · 2010-09-21 12:11 · Score: 1

"Chinese officials consider censorship demands to be state secrets, so we cannot disclose that information at this time."

Source: Click on China in the map here.

Singapore search traffic halved in June by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 12:42 · Score: 0

But no such trend appears in other countries' traffic. Wonder if its a difference in normalization or censorship?
Link

Re:Singapore search traffic halved in June by Psaakyrn · 2010-09-21 13:16 · Score: 1

I don't believe Singapore censors search results, though the resultant linked pages may be. Might just be a coincidence.

I immediately think of Google... by dtmancom · 2010-09-21 13:11 · Score: 1

...when I think "internet censorship." Interesting.

So information about China is Censored? by Psaakyrn · 2010-09-21 13:17 · Score: 1

n/t

So much is missing by geomark · 2010-09-21 13:45 · Score: 1

The map hardly tells the story. They acknowledge that it contains no data for China, but other countries like Thailand are right up there. Thailand is rather notorious for blocking websites, over 100,000 at present and counting according to some anti-censorship groups who are keeping track. And draconian prosecution and jail time for anything deemed illegal published on forums. Google has cred so would really like to see something comprehensive published by them.

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Khao Yai Land

It's just division.... by guyminuslife · 2010-09-21 14:51 · Score: 5, Informative

Come on! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to derive those values. Here's a list of government requests per million people, rounded and only including the countries where the number of datums requested was shown. Argentina - - - 3.307095
Australia - - - 8.901248
Austria - - - 0.238865
Belgium - - - 6.557971
Brazil - - - 12.581119
Chile - - - 6.712585
France - - - 15.539203
Germany - - - 8.166034
Hong Kong - - - 7.11602
India - - - 1.203775
Israel - - - 3.932982
Italy - - - 10.7777
Japan - - - 0.439595
Libya - - - 22.761992
Portugal - - - 6.86291
Singapore - - - 20.879705
South Korea - - - 3.415496
Spain - - - 8.074172
Switzerland - - - 4.497038
Taiwan - - - 5.620141
Turkey - - - 0.702854
United Kingdom - - - 21.658479
United States - - - 13.815395

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I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.

Re:It's just division.... by guyminuslife · 2010-09-21 14:55 · Score: 1

Argh, WTB newline for Argentina.

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I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Re:It's just division.... by Capsaicin · 2010-09-21 16:54 · Score: 1

Come on! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to derive those values
No just someone who's gonna take the time to look up all those population figures. Now how about sorting them? ;)
Seriously though, thanks for the effort it's much more informative this way.

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Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke
Re:It's just division.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 17:42 · Score: 0

And there is no Russia here :-), so we have very little censorship.
Re:It's just division.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 19:45 · Score: 0

Libya - - - 22.761992
Singapore - - - 20.879705
United Kingdom - - - 21.658479
The UK must be proud to be in such good, upstandingly democratic company.
Re:It's just division.... by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 21:20 · Score: 0

datums?
Re:It's just division.... by guyminuslife · 2010-09-22 00:49 · Score: 1

I was about to sort them, but then realized what I was doing and stopped. ;-)

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I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Re:It's just division.... by guyminuslife · 2010-09-22 01:00 · Score: 1

Datum is the singular of data, but data is not necessarily the plural of datum. Try saying, "number of data" and not cracking up.

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I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
Re:It's just division.... by elrous0 · 2010-09-22 01:52 · Score: 1

No only will the government there allow you to openly criticize them, but they'll even buy you a free tea as a reward.

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SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Re:It's just division.... by linuxrocks123 · 2010-09-22 02:17 · Score: 1

Sorted: Libya, United Kingdom, Singapore, France, United States, Brazil, Italy, Australia, Germany, Spain, Hong Kong, Portugal, Chile, Belgium, Taiwan, Switzerland, Israel, South Korea, Turkey, Japan, Austria

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vi ~/.emacs # I'm probably going to Hell for this.
Re:It's just division.... by Capsaicin · 2010-09-26 13:49 · Score: 1

I was about to sort them, but then realized what I was doing and stopped. ;-)
Well to return the favour

Libya|22.7620 United Kingdom|21.6585 Singapore|20.8797 France|15.5392 United States|13.8154 Brazil|12.5811 Italy|10.7777 Australia|8.9012 Germany|8.1660 Spain|8.0742 Hong Kong|7.1160 Portugal|6.8629 Chile|6.7126 Belgium|6.5580 Taiwan|5.6201 Switzerland|4.4970 Israel|3.9330tt South Korea|3.4155 Argentina|3.3071 India|1.2038 Turkey|0.7029 Japan|0.4396 Austria|0.2389

So rather less than democratic countries like Libya and Singapore up there with the traditional democracies UK, US and France. And on second thought not all countries with very low rates are the pits of the earth. Norway and Sweden, the countries which regularly rank first on UN nice country lists (albeit with the inclusion of a number of criteria many readers might find too "socialistic" for their tastes, eg, access to public education and health, along with literacy and longevity rates, but apparently not mean temperature), are in the

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Better to be despised for too anxious apprehensions, than ruined by too confident a security. --Edmund Burke

also by Tom · 2010-09-21 16:32 · Score: 1

also conspiciously absent: a simple link to the map, which is slightly hidden among other links at the end of the article.

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Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org

Google = Cowards by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-21 16:53 · Score: 0

From the article,
"Chinese officials consider censorship demands to be state secrets so we cannot disclose that information at this time," said Google.

China by mr100percent · 2010-09-21 17:32 · Score: 1

For China, just leave it up to your imagination how bad it could be. People will gravitate towards the worst-case scenario, and the lack of transparency will only increase that.

404 not found? by thenickdude · 2010-09-21 19:11 · Score: 1

While I was browsing it, the censorship map suddenly went offline and now returns a 404 Not Found error. Google stepping on somebody's toes?

Democracy by Anonymous Coward · 2010-09-22 06:46 · Score: 0

Cool, my country is "democratic" from 1989 and we`re not event on that list. Americans, think about your freedom ;)

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Google Publishes Censorship Map

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