In this June 5, 2014 photo, a man walks past a Google sign at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google is buying Skybox Imaging in a deal that could serve as a launching pad for the Internet company to send its own fleet of satellites to take aerial pictures and provide online access to remote areas of the world. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
In this June 5, 2014 photo, a man walks past a Google sign at the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google is buying Skybox Imaging in a deal that could serve as a launching pad for the Internet company to send its own fleet of satellites to take aerial pictures and provide online access to remote areas of the world. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
In this June 5, 2014 photo, a man walks past a Google sign at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Google is buying Skybox Imaging in a deal that could serve as a launching pad for the Internet company to send its own fleet of satellites to take aerial pictures and provide online access to remote areas of the world. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

(IT Pro Portal) – Google has just published its latest transparency report, which shows how often governments around the world have leaned on the search giant for data on users.

And unsurprisingly, given all the stories about increasing government surveillance online, the numbers are up considerably – in fact there’s been a 150 per cent jump in government demands for user information globally, in the first half of 2014 compared to 2009. The increase has been 15 per cent compared to the latter half of 2013.

In the US, where the NSA has been creating the most waves and controversy with surveillance practices, the figures show a far bigger increase of 250 per cent since 2009, and 19 per cent since the second half of last year. Those numbers exclude FISA and NSL demands, incidentally.

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