U.S. government requests for data on Google users for the first half of 2011 increased 29% over the previous six-month time frame, according to a report released by Google today.

Government agencies and courts sent a total of 5,950 user data requests between January 1 and June 30, 2011, covering 11,057 separate users and accounts. Google said that it fully or partially complied with 93% of them.

Google noted in the report that data requests "primarily cover requests in criminal matters" although a small number fall outside of this category.

And requests by the U.S. government to remove content from Google products also jumped--to 92, a 59% increase. The majority of requests, which targeted 757 items, involved alleged defamation, found either in Google's Web search results, Google groups, YouTube or in Blogger, the search giant's blogging platform. Google chose to comply with 63% of the requests.

These numbers come from Google's Transparency Report, a company effort to "help in ongoing discussions about the appropriate scope and authority of government requests." A post on the Google Blog today said that the report is partly motivated by a need to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, a 25 year-old law, that, among other things, allows law enforcement to access a user's Internet activities without judge approval.