Updated Google privacy data: UK now “only” 2nd most snooped on

Created 27 June 2011 by Zoe O'Connell

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A while ago, I produced a per-capita analysis of the Google privacy data showing that the UK, per citizen, is the most snooped on country – there were more requests per person in the UK to Google than any other country. More up to date data is now available, for July to December 2010, showing that the UK is no longer the most snooped on – we’ve dropped to second place. Singapore does not appear in the January to June data but no reason is indicated for this.

(Note: Previous positions in the table below are based on latest data from Google. Some countries did not have data available at the time the previous blog post was compiled, so those numbers do not match)

Population Previous position Requests per Million (Jan-Jun) Requests per Million (Jul-Dec)
1. Singapore 5,076,700 5th 20.9 23.2
2. United Kingdom 62,008,049 1st 40.5 18.7
3. France 65,447,374 3rd 28.5 15.6
4. Australia 22,469,943 6th 15.8 15.4
5. United States 310,314,000 4th 25.4 14.8
6. Italy 60,402,499 6th 19.9 13.9
7. Germany 81,802,257 13th 5.6 9.4
8. Brazil 193,549,000 2nd 31.5 9.3
9. Portugal 10,636,888 10th 6.9 8.6
10. Belgium 10,839,905 11th 6.5 7.8

And no real surprises in the removal requests category either as Lybia is still an order of magnitude ahead of every other country. The United States, home of free speech, drops out of the top 10 completely down to number 13 while the UK stays up at number six.

Population Previous position Removals per Million (Jan-Jun) Removals per Million (Jul-Dec)
1. Libya 6,546,000 1st 22.8 10.4
2. South Korea 49,773,145 5th 2.0 2.8
3. Germany 81,802,257 2nd 3.8 1.4
4. Brazil 193,549,000 3rd 3.6 1.4
5. Italy 60,402,499 4th 2.1 0.8
6. United Kingdom 62,008,049 6th 1.7 0.6
7. Argentina 40,518,951 8th 1.3 0.5
8. Switzerland 7,866,500 13th 0.6 0.5
9. France 65,447,374 3rd 0.5 0.4
10. Spain 46,072,834 9th 1.0 0.3