The number of requests Google is receiving from Government to delete or change data appering on its search engine or other services has been steadily increasing, Google said on Tuesday. According to Google's Transparency Report, government requests government demands for user data have increased steadily since Google first launched the report. 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. The number of government requests to remove content from Google's services was largely flat from 2009 to 2011. But it spiked in the first half of 2012 as there were 1,791 requests from government officials around the world to remove 17,746 pieces of content.

"The information we disclose is only an isolated sliver showing how governments interact with the Internet, since for the most part we don't know what requests are made of other technology or telecommunications companies," said Dorothy Chou, a Google's senior policy analyst.

"But we're heartened that in the past year, more companies like Dropbox, LinkedIn, Sonic.net and Twitter have begun to share their statistics too. Our hope is that over time, more data will bolster public debate about how we can best keep the Internet free and open," she added.