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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/
I heard you like censorship so I censored your censorship map...
For the super-impatient, a link you can click!
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 ----
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.
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.
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.
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.
>>>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
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 ?
Can I light a sig ?
United States 4287 Brazil 2435 India 1430 United Kingdom 1343 France 1017 Germany 668 Italy 651 Spain 372 Australia 200
"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!"
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
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,
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
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).
they generally yell "think of the children" when they are taking away your rights so how can you tell?
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.
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
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.
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.
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..