Aust agencies ramp up user data requests

Australian authorities are steadily stepping up requests to Google for user information, according to the internet titan's latest transparency report.

In the second half of 2013, Australian governments and their agencies made requests for the personal information of 944 account holders, Google revealed on Friday.

That's the largest number since the company began publishing the six-monthly reports in 2009, and a 17 per cent rise on the first six months of 2013.

Requests have naturally risen along with Google's user growth, increasing 120 per cent across the globe since 2009.

But Richard Salgado, Google's head of law enforcement and information security, said in a blog post governments were increasingly exercising their authority to make requests.

User data is usually sought as part of a criminal investigation but may also be lodged in an emergency situation, such as a suicide threat.

Information may include names, email addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses, and in rarer cases the contents of emails, private blogs and text messages.

In Australia, Google complied with 70 per cent of the requests it received, a rise of six percentage points on the first six months of the year, and the highest percentage since 2010.

The remaining 30 per cent it rejected on legal grounds.

The number of accounts specified in Australian requests was the eighth highest in the world.

The US recorded the most, with 18,254, followed by France with 2750 and Germany with 2660.

Google was one of the first tech firms to begin disclosing numbers of user data requests from governments.

Several others have since followed suit, including Facebook, Yahoo, Twitter and Apple.

Locally, Telstra published its first transparency report on March 7, revealing it received 40,000 requests in the six months to December.