A month after it exited China, Google has lifted the lid from how countries across the world request user data or censor its search engine. The Internet giant, currently operating in 100 countries, has launched a new tool?an online world map?that provides information about the user data and content removal requests that Google receives from government agencies across the globe. The requests? data currently covers the period from July 1, 2009, to December 31, 2009. These data will be updated every six months. Of the more than 40 countries in the Google Government Requests list, Brazil tops with 3,663 user data requests followed by the US (3,580) and the UK (1,166); India (1,061) falls on the fourth spot. Brazil also made the highest content removal requests with 291 calls, followed by Germany (188) and India (142).

For both Brazil and India, a majority of the government requests for content removal were relatively high due to the popularity of Google?s social networking Web site Orkut and all the impersonation or defamation allegedly associated with it. Interestingly, 53% of Google?s first quarter revenues came from outside the US. As such, the new tool is being introduced at a time when the company is expanding in worldwide markets and thus has to deal with different regimes overriding online freedom. It?s also interesting that Google?s new tool was launched on the very day when officials from 10 countries had gathered together to question its privacy policies. They were demanding that the company should make greater efforts to protect people?s privacy rather than just paying lip service to it. They got an apt reply.

But China?s content removal requests remain a mystery. Google hasn?t put these in the public domain since China considers censorship demands a state secret. Still, what has become clearer now is that Google?s battle over censorship extends far beyond China. According to OpenNet Initiative, more than 40 countries censor the Internet today as compared to just a handful in 2004. Google describes its new tool as a step towards transparency, and greater transparency implies less censorship.

jaya.jumrani@expressindia.com