Google once again saw an increased number of data requests from global law enforcement agencies during the second half of 2015. For the first time, the total number of requests in a six month period surpassed 40,000. That’s up from the 35,365 requests Google received in the first half of 2015, and the 30,140 it received in the six months before that.

Google’s numbers came in its latest Transparency Report, which is seen by many as an important resource because it’s one of the most reliable gauges of government ‘snooping’ we have. In addition, it’s also a key indicator of Google’s willingness to give up our personal data. Such has been the impact of Google’s transparency reports that numerous other tech firms, including Facebook, Twitter and the popular messaging app Line have all copied it and begun issuing their own reports.

So it comes as no surprise to hear that “Google is proud to have led the charge on publishing these reports, helping shed light on government surveillance laws and practices across the world,” as the company said in a blog post.

Google added that it was “pleased with some of the improvements we’ve seen in surveillance laws”. It went on to highlight the Privacy Shield agreement between the U.S. and European Commission, and the Judicial Redress Act which extends protections enjoyed by U.S. citizens to other nationalities, as examples of these improvements. However, it said that more needs to be done to protect user privacy, especially in the case of international investigations.

“We helped create the Reform Government Surveillance coalition to encourage Congress and the executive branch to take steps to modernize U.S. surveillance laws, further protect the privacy and data security rights of all users, including those outside the US and those not of US nationality, and improve diplomatic processes to promote a robust, principled, and transparent framework for legitimate cross-border investigations,” Google stated.

As for the stats themselves, Google’s report reveals that once again the U.S. government led the way with the most data requests. American law enforcement agencies made a grand total of 12,523 requests to access data from a total of 27,157 Google users. In 79 percent of those cases, Google actually complied and provided some form of data (but not necessarily as much as the authorities had asked for). That’s up from 12,002 requests made by U.S. authorities in the first half of 2015.

The second-most demanding nation, from Google’s point of view anyway, was Germany, which made 7,491 requests over the six month period, up from just 3,903 in the first half of 2015. It was followed by France (4,174 requests), the U.K. (3,497 requests) and India (3,265 requests).

Interestingly, despite the rising number of data requests, Google’s chart below shows that the company acted on a lower percentage of those requests than it has done in previous years.

For those interested in more detailed stats on their country, check out Google’s full Transparency Report here.

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