Google Transparency Reports and Government Requests

In 2010 Google launched the Transparency Report "to provide hard evidence of how laws and policies affect access to information online." They recently released numbers showing how many requests Google received from various governments to remove content from their services. There was a 68 percent increase of government requests to remove content from the last six months of 2012 to the first six months of 2013. Various types of governments or government officials have asked Google to remove political content ranging from judges, police departments, and town councils to countries such as Turkey and Russia. Reasons given for the requests include defamation, privacy and copyright laws.

Google emphasizes:

While the information we present in our Transparency Report is certainly not a comprehensive view of censorship online, it does demonstrate a worrying upward trend in the number of government requests, and underscores the importance of transparency around the processes governing such requests.

The report also includes a link to a safe browsing page detailing how many malware and phishing websites Google detects each week, how many users they warn, and which networks around the world host malware sites. Google also has a series of videos that describe malware infections and the cleanup process.

Government Operations and Websites Impacted by Shutdown

For information about how the government shutdown is affecting the operations and services of the federal government, see the USA.gov shutdown information page at http://www.usa.gov/shutdown.shtml. The White House has also posted links to agency contingency plans at http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/contingency-plans.
Most government websites indicate being closed completely or not updating information because of the shutdown. A partial list of shut down websites include those from the:

• Census Bureau
• Copyright Office (Will accept registrations to be processed once the shutdown ends.)
• Library of Congress (except the legislative sites Thomas.gov and beta.congress.gov)
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)
• National Center for Education Statistics(NCES) sites including ERIC,the Digest of Educational Statistics, and International Comparisons in Education. Fondren has three commercial ERIC databases and an extensive collection of ERIC microfiche.
• National Science Foundation
• Interior Department including USGS (United States Geological Survey) (Information about Interior Department closures is available from http://www.doi.gov/index.cfm).

A partial list of sites open but not updating include:

• FDSys (Federal Digital System)(Provides official access to documents from all three branches of government). Exception: Federal Register services necessary to safeguard human life, protect property or provide other emergency services will be updated
• USA.gov (Normally provides comprehensive information on government resources, services and forms for citizens, businesses and government.)
• Ed.gov but statistical sites are closed - see above
• CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)(but CDC Wonder for disseminating health information is closed)
• Health and Human Services sites such as NIH (National Institutes of Health),PubMed, and AHRQ (Agency for Healhcare Research and Quality)
• HUD.gov (Housing and Urban Development)
• Grants.gov (Will accept applications, but applications will not be processed by any of the federal agencies.)

The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has funds to continue operating for several weeks. The Department of Energy pages presently have no statement as to their status.

On Oct. 3, 2013 Inside Higher Education documented interruptions in academic research as a result on the shutdown in an article by Michael Stratford entitled Locked Out of the Library.

If you wish to contact Congress to describe how the lack of access affects you, Who Represents Me, Texas provides a database to identify your U.S. House of Representatives member as well as the Senators from Texas.