New Google Tool Highlights Data Removal Requests
April 20, 2010
| 3:21 PM
Google launched a new tool Tuesday that provides information on requests by governments around the world to remove data or other information from Google services.
"Google, like other technology and telecommunications companies, regularly receives demands from government agencies to remove content from our services. Of course many of these requests are entirely legitimate, such as requests for the removal of child pornography," Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond said in a blog post. He added, "Data about these activities historically has not been broadly available. We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship."
The Government Requests tool includes requests by individual countries to remove data such as content from search results. The data is broken down by whether Google complied with the requests. However, the tool provides little information about what information was taken down and why, an issue Drummond said Google plans to address in the future. Of the data currently available, Brazil made the most requests for data to be removed, which could be linked to Google's Orkut social networking site, which is popular in Brazil.
The data currently available on the tool is based on requests from July-December of last year. Google said it plans to update the data every six months. Information related to criminal investigations, alleged defamation, hate speech and impersonation are some of the types of requests for removal included in the data highlighted by Google's new tool. It did not include requests to remove child pornography because Google said it automatically removes such content whenever it is notified that such content exists on its systems. In addition, it did not include requests by governments for removal of copyrighted material on Google's YouTube site because most of those requests are made by private parties.
Google has gained praise and attention for its decision earlier this year to stop censoring search results for users in China. It now redirects users in China to its uncensored Hong Kong-based site.
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Internet Freedom
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