Google is Getting Record Numbers of User Data Requests from the Feds and other Governments

This year has brought the biggest expansion yet of government efforts around the world to gather user data from Google, one of the globe's most-used search engines and online destinations, according to a new report from the company first obtained by ABC News. 

While requests for user data grew everywhere in the past year, U.S. government attempts to access such data ballooned nearly three times faster than requests from overseas, the report showed. 

Google is set to officially release the report later today.

"Americans still have no way of knowing whether the government is striking the right balance between privacy and security, or whether their privacy is being violated," Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., said during a Senate hearing Wednesday, speaking generally about the need for more transparency over government collection of data. 

In the first six months of 2013, the U.S. government submitted 10,918 requests to Google for information about its users, up from 7,969 requests a year before, the report said. The numbers have more than doubled since 2009.

"This comes as usage of our services continues to grow, but also as more governments have made requests than ever before," Google's legal director, Richard Salgado, writes in the report. 

In the first half of 2013, Google complied with 83 percent of the U.S. government requests it received. 

The requests to Google came from law enforcement agencies and other entities with authority to investigate crime, such as courts and judges.

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