--- description: They've increased by 120% since 2009 title: Google Reports Government Requests for User Information Are Way Up image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29d63ae5d5358252/6986879e1eebf7c9f437010b/google-girl-cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Google: Government Requests for User Data Up 120% by [Eric Dodds](/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 27, 2014 4:03 PM CUT  XIAN, CHINA - NOVEMBER 20: (CHINA OUT) An etiquette girl is reflected on a big screen at the Google's 2008 Xian winter marketing forum on November 20, 2008 in Xian of Shaanxi Province, China. Google has covered in China most of the commercial value of users, 88 percent of search products and user information in the use of Google. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images) XIAN, CHINA - NOVEMBER 20: (CHINA OUT) An etiquette girl is reflected on a big screen at the Google's 2008 Xian winter marketing forum on November 20, 2008 in Xian of Shaanxi Province, China. Google has covered in China most of the commercial value of users, 88 percent of search products and user information in the use of Google. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)China Photos—Getty Images by [Eric Dodds](/author/eric-dodds/) ## Eric Dodds Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 27, 2014 4:03 PM CUT Google [announced](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/transparency-report-requests-for-user.html "undefined") Thursday that government requests for user information has increased by 120% since 2009\. Though the number of Google users has also increased over the same time period, the company says it is “seeing more and more governments start to exercise their authority to make requests.” Google’s announcement comes by way of its bi-annual transparency report, which details government requests for user data where the company is legally able to do so. The report comes just one week after news that Google is [working on enhancements](http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/20/technology/security/gmail-nsa/ "undefined") to its Gmail service that would make it more difficult to conduct mass surveillance of users’ messages. \[[Google: Official Blog](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/transparency-report-requests-for-user.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/40336/google-transparency-report/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/40336/google-transparency-report/"},"headline":"Google: Government Requests for User Data Up 120%","datePublished":"2014-03-27T16:03:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:01:50.569Z","description":"They've increased by 120% since 2009","url":"https://time.com/40336/google-transparency-report/","keywords":["Tech","Google","gmail","Government","transparency"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29d63ae5d5358252/6986879e1eebf7c9f437010b/google-girl-cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eric Dodds","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/eric-dodds/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt29d63ae5d5358252/6986879e1eebf7c9f437010b/google-girl-cropped.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"2008 Google Winter Marketing Forum In Xian","caption":"2008 Google Winter Marketing Forum In Xian","creditText":"China Photos—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/40336/google-transparency-report/","name":"Google: Government Requests for User Data Up 120%"}}]}] ```