Google
India Second in Monitoring Personal User InformationReuters

The Indian government has issued more requests for personal data of internet users in the second half of 2012, according to the latest Google Transparency report.

The report said that the number of requests placed by the India government in the last six months has seen a steady increase when compared to the previous figure. According to the web giant's semi-annual "transparency report", India sent 2,431 data requests for 4,106 users in the six-month period ending December. The list was topped by the United State Government which placed 8,438 requests for 14,868 users.

"The steady increase in Government requests for our users' data continued in the second half of 2012, as usage of our services continued to grow," said Richard Salgado, Google's head of law enforcement and information security, PTI reported.

"User data requests of all kinds have increased by more than 70 percent since 2009," he added.

India's request for user information has marked a rise of 17 percent from the previous year. The report further stated that 68 percent of requests were sought through Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) subpoenas which "are the easiest to get because they typically don't involve judges."

In the first six months of 2012, the Government had sent 2,319 cases to Google. The data released by the web service major pointed to the rising trend of surveillance on internet activities.

"In total, we received 21,389 requests for information about 33,634 users from July through December 2012," said Salgado.