Data requests to Google from Hong Kong government hit record high

Google received a record number of requests from Hong Kong authorities to disclose data about its users in the second half of last year, according to figures from the search engine giant.

Google's latest six-monthly Transparency Report says there were 367 requests for data involving 407 users. But only 43 per cent of the requests were deemed of merit to hand over data.

Although the figures were only marginally higher than those for the first half of last year, the number of requests for data has been on the rise.

Charles Mok, lawmaker for the information technology sector, said the government's lack of transparency on data requests was a threat to Hongkongers' privacy.

"This ongoing trend underlines the threat present to netizens' online privacy and freedom of speech," Mok said.

"These government requests for user information are often made under very opaque circumstances for investigation and law-enforcement purposes, and internet service providers are not in a position to refuse."

Ranked against 85 countries and territories, Hong Kong came in 12th in the number of data requests made, compared to 9,981 in the United States, 2,080 in Britain and 217 in Taiwan.

Singapore's government made 1,410 requests for data involving 1,471 user accounts, and was successful in obtaining the data in 68 per cent of cases.

Foreign tech companies, including Facebook and Yahoo, regularly publish reports about requests for data from law enforcement.

Jennifer Zhang, project manager for the Hong Kong Transparency Report, a project by the journalism and media studies centre at the University of Hong Kong, said local online service providers had yet to publish similar transparency reports and legal guidelines on data requests.

"This raises both transparency and accountability concerns for the user," she said. "Users are counting on their service providers to safeguard their data, but the reality is we have no way of knowing."

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer said: "Such requests are mainly related to crime prevention and detection as well as law enforcement."

The office said there was no central mechanism by which it can be seen what requests had been made, and "as such the office does not have readily available information on the details of requests for data from government departments".