Google today admitted that it had received - and complied with - a record number of requests from governments to reveal information about its users.

The latest edition of the search giant's Transparency Report shows governments around the world made nearly 21,000 requests to access its data in the first six months of 2012.

The U.S. government made the most demands, asking for users' details 7,969 times between January and June this year. The UK came sixth - behind Germany and France - with 1,425 requests.

This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise,' Dorothy Chou, a senior policy analyst for Google, said in a blog post.

'In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.'

In common with other technology and communications firms, Google is regularly asked by courts and government agencies around the world to hand over information about its users.

As well as search histories, it holds data on users' contacts and communications through Gmail, viewing preferences on YouTube, photos on Picasa, documents stored on Google Drive, and information about authors' identities on Blogger.


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