Australia comes in at number 10 on a list of countries that have asked the search engine Google to hand over user data or to censor information.

Google has for the first time released information about the number of such requests that it gets from countries around the world.

Top of the list is Brazil, followed by Germany, the United States and India.

Google says the release of the information is the first step towards increased transparency and will give people an insight into government actions and web freedom.

Australia made 17 data removal requests and 155 requests for user information.

Electronic Frontiers Australia's Geordie Guy, who lobbies for internet freedom, says the figure is smaller than expected.

"It does seem quite small. If I had have taken a guess not long ago I probably would have guessed a higher number, particularly in terms of requests to remove content," he said.

"As it stands at the moment though, companies like Google and obviously their service YouTube are fairly good at regulating.

"They don't regulate to quite the extent the Australian Government would like; they tend to only ever regulate material that's illegal or patently offensive, whereas our classification guidelines tend to try and cast a wider net."

Brazil and the United States made the most requests for user data, with Germany and Brazil topping the list for removing online material.

Last year between June and December, Google collected data which showed how often countries asked it to give up personal information and to remove content from its servers.

One possible reason for Brazil being first is the widespread use of Google's social networking site, which throws up many of the same issues that are confronted by Facebook.

Australia's Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis has welcomed the list.

"It actually adds to the transparency of how and when people's personal information may be disclosed," she said.

"And while it's perfectly legal for those requests to be made of Google, it is useful for us to know that those requests are actually being made by law enforcement agencies and also for removal of child pornography as well."

A Google spokesperson was unavailable to discuss the figures, but in a statement the company said it hoped the list will be helpful in discussions about the appropriate scope and authority of government requests and that other companies will make similar disclosures.

The published information is light on detail and Google will not confirm whether these requests were made by government or law enforcement agencies.

According to Mr Guy, that makes sense.

"These types of requests can come in a variety of formats - some of them can be information pertinent to criminal investigations, some of them might be requirements to remove information under Australia's content classification and censorship systems," he said.

"In the case of law enforcement, it may be that Google doesn't wish to prejudice ongoing criminal investigations and in terms of our censorship system, what Australia attempts to censor through its classification framework are government secrets, so they may be obligated to keep that information private."

Google under pressure

The publication of the list comes at a time when Google itself is under fire for privacy breaches.

Canada's privacy commissioner sent an open letter to Google's CEO, Eric Schmidt, signed by the privacy heads of nine other countries, including New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The letter urged the internet giant to consider the privacy of individuals as it rolls out new products.

It referred to the recent launch of Google's social networking application Buzz and Streetview.

Google was forced to apologise and make changes to Buzz after it allowed personal material stored on its email service to be shared with contacts in a user's box without their consent.

Australia's Privacy Commissioner Karen Curtis says she was approached to sign the letter.

"Our approach always is to work constructively with businesses and governments who have obligations under the privacy acts and we have more of a one-on-one dialogue with Google. We're in regular contact with Google Australia and we discuss things like Streetview and Google Buzz with them," Ms Curtis said.

"We decided that we have a more constructive relationship with Google Australia that we could pursue more on a one-on-one basis.

"We live in a digitised world and of course personal information is out there in the digitised world, so of course I'm very concerned about how all of us and all the businesses and all individuals interact in this online world."