Were you a target of any of the nearly 21,000 requests made by governments worldwide in the first half of 2012 for access to search results, Gmail accounts and other data Google holds for its users? The number of appeals is almost twice that of the 12,539 made in the last six months of 2009, when Google first published its Transparency Report.

Authorities issued 1,791 requests for Google to remove 17,746 pieces of content in the first six months of 2012, almost double the 949 requests made in the same interval last year. In the last half of 2011, 1,048 appeals were made.

The United States issued more requests than any other nation because many Google users reside in the country. U.S. authorities are also more familiar with Google than officials in some other nations, and foreign governments sometimes seek information through U.S. channels. In those instances, the countries from which the requests originate remain unknown.

Defamation, privacy and security were the top three reasons cited by governments in their removal appeals. Google also reports numerous instances of having received fake court documents asking it to remove content.

— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.