France increases number of Google user data requests

THE French authorities continue to lead the way in Europe when it comes to requesting user information from Google.

The search engine's bi-annual transparency report showed for the second half of 2012, the French authorities made 1,693 requests for user date, and Google complied with 44% of them.

This is up on the 1,546 requests made by the authorities, often police and legal entities, for the first half of last year.

France currently sits in third place for the number of requests, behind India in second and the USA in the top spot, with Germany fourth and the UK fifth.