Brazil, Germany and the U.S., the ones who have asked Google to remove content

The Brazilian authorities, the Germans and the Americans are those who have submitted during the first half of 2011 more requests to Google to remove content they consider to violate their laws.

Through its tool "governmental" , the search engine company has published information on the requests that courts and government agencies have submitted for the removal of content (each request may relate to multiple items) or to access user data.

From January to June 2011, Brazil filed 224 applications for Google to remove content from their various websites (of which the company suppressed by 67%), especially issues relating to defamation, identity theft, the rights of copyright, privacy and security. Next in the list Germany , with 125 requests that were taken into account the 86% U.S. and 92 requests a withdrawal rate of 63%, and South Korea, with 88 applications and a rate of content removed from 63%.

In Spain were sent 13 requests (28% over the same period last year) concerning violation of the law on defamation, privacy and security and pornography, and Google removed all or part of site contents web by 54% of cases.

For its part, the Argentine authorities asked Google on 21 occasions to withdraw certain content and the search satisfied the demands in all cases.

User data

The Mountain View company also has published statistics on any request from the governments in the first half of 2011 to access user data .

The United States leads the list with 5950 requests and a response rate of 93%. In second place is India, with 1739 applications of which 70% went unanswered, and in third place appears France, with 1,300 requests for data, which Google said 48%.

The Spanish authorities requested in 460 cases data about users and the search engine company responded to 63 percent of them.

In Latin America, Brazil is also the most active country in the request for data about users: 703 applications filed in the first half year of which 87% went unanswered. Applications in Argentina amounted to 134 (32% satisfied in cases), in Chile, 118 (with a response rate of 42%) and Mexico, to 48 (of which Google take into account a 42 %).