Google released its latest transparency report on Thursday, revealing tens of thousands of law enforcement requests from across the world. In the second half of 2013, the report lists more than 27,000 requests for user data from around the world, affecting more than 42,000 different accounts. It’s a 120 percent jump in requests over the past four years, something legal director Richard Salgado attributes the jump to “more and more governments start[ing] to exercise their authority to make requests” in the years since the company began reporting. As with previous transparency reports, the report does not address bulk surveillance programs conducted by the NSA, which companies are legally prohibited from disclosing. However, Salgado did point to previous NSA-related reports and highlighted Google’s ongoing push for surveillance reform, which could allow for more thorough transparency reports in the future.
Read the full story at The Verge, or check out Google’s Transparency Report.