Government Asked Google for 38 Users' Data

But that's nothing compared to the U.S., whose government sought out data on more than 4,600 citizens.

The federal government tried to creep 38 people's user data on Google between July and December of last year, the web giant says in a new report. Google's 2011 Transparency Report outlines the extent to which national governments have leaned on the search engine to track down user information. Fifty-five per cent of the Canadian government's requests were granted. Google also took down three blogs and eight YouTube videos at Canada's behest because they contained copyrighted material. However, those 38 Canadian requests are nothing compared to the U.S.' 4,601 attempts, or Brazil's 1,804. Google started the practice of issuing twice-yearly reports on government requests last year to provide a check on states that are overly eager to rife through their citizen's data.