As Google Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote in a blog post yesterday "It's important for law enforcement agencies to pursue illegal activity and keep the public safe. We're a law-abiding company, and we don't want our services to be used in harmful ways. But it's just as important that laws protect you against overly broad requests for your personal information."

The blog post responds to the Google Transparency Report, which a week back said that, U.S. authorities are increasingly seeking user data. In the second half of 2012, Google received 8,438 U.S. requests for information, up 6 percent from the first half of 2012. Globally, Google received 21,389 requests, up 2 percent from the first half of the year.

The user information generally is sought in the following form, Subpoena: Subscriber registration information (e.g., name, account creation information, associated email addresses, phone number); Sign-in IP addresses and associated time stamps; Court order: Non-content information (such as non-content email header information) Information obtainable with a subpoena; Search warrant: Email content, Information obtainable with a subpoena or court order.

Google also said that along with the new section in its transparency report, it also will continue pushing for updating laws like the U.S. Electronic Communications Privacy Act. In addition, it will continue its "long-standing strict process for handling these kinds of requests."

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