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Google Publishes Censorship Map
Entropy98 writes "Google has released a censorship map showing how often countries around the world request user information and censor services such as Youtube. The US government asked Google for user information 4,287 times during the first six months of 2010. Information on China is conspicuously absent."
You link to an article talking about it, but not the source link? http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/governmentrequests/
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.
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/
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).
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
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.