Google received 19 requests for information regarding 62 customers or accounts from Irish authorities in the first six months of this year.

Publishing its Google Transparency report, the company revealed it handed over information about three users or accounts on foot of requests from law enforcement.

In the second half of 2015, however, the company disclosed information about 5,209 users, or 43 per cent of 12,113 customers targeted in just 14 law enforcement requests.

Companies such as Google are only permitted to disclose limited data on law enforcement requests. So it is unclear why such a large number of users were targeted by Irish authorities in 2015, or whether those requests came from gardaí or another body.

It is also unclear whether the requests relate to emails or other content, or to communications metadata.

For comparison, the UK made 3,044 requests in relation to 3,696 users or accounts in the first six months; Google handed over information in 69 per cent of the cases.

In the first six months of the year, a period immediately following last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, French law enforcement authorities made 4,286 requests in relation to 5,164 users or accounts. Google handed over information in 60 per cent of the cases.

Regular requests

Google said that, like other technology and communications companies, it regularly receives requests from governments and courts around the world to hand over user data.

“We review each request to make sure that it complies with both the spirit and the letter of the law,” the company said, “and we may refuse to produce information or try to narrow the request in some cases.”

Globally, Google received 44,943 government requests for information regarding 76,713 accounts between January and June 2016. It provided user information in response to 64 per cent of them.

Google said it received its first ever requests this year from Algeria, Belarus, Cayman Islands, El Salvador, Fiji and Saudi Arabia.