The tangled David Petraeus scandal highlights how easily the U.S. government can access citizens ' private e-mails . The FBI 's request to access Paula Broadwell 's personal Gmail account was one of 7,969 similar requests Google received from the U.S. government in the first half of 2012 , according to Google and news reports . The company said it complied with the requests , either fully or partially , 90 % of the time . According to the latest Google Transparency report , Google fielded 20,938 requests for private account data from governments around the world between January and June of this year . That 's up from 18,257 such requests during the last half of 2011 , the company said . `` One trend has become clear : Government surveillance is on the rise , '' Dorothy Chou , a Google senior policy analyst , writes in the blog post announcing the latest report -- the sixth Google has released in the last three years . Google stores huge amounts of data and personal information about its users . In addition to the wealth of information in e-mail and Google Drive accounts , the company also has users ' IP addresses , which can be used to determine locations . Beginning in May of this year , the FBI accessed Gmail accounts used by Broadwell to communicate with Petraeus , the former CIA director , during their affair , according to a report in the Wall Street Journal . The bi-annual Google Transparency report is Google 's attempt to `` shine a light '' on how often governments around the world ask to access user data as part of criminal investigations . The company also publishes data on how often government agencies request that public content be removed from Google services , such as YouTube videos or blog posts on Blogger . The most common reason cited for wanting content taken down is defamation . U.S. law enforcement agencies seem to be the most curious . The country continues to top the list for the most requests for user data in the world , followed at a distance by India . While Google is admirably proactive about releasing data on government requests , in the majority of cases it does turn over the requested information . The company said it cooperates with U.S. government requests more than any other country . Outdated laws have created loopholes that allow government and law enforcement agencies to request information and conduct electronic surveillance without warrants . The piece of legislation at the heart of the issue is the Electronic Communications Privacy Act , passed in 1986 . Technology has changed radically in the past 25 years . E-mails , cellphones , location information and data stored on cloud services were n't considered when the original law was drafted . Google is an active member of the Digital Due Process Coalition , which has been pushing for reform of the ECPA . The group 's members include Apple , Amazon , the ACLU , Facebook , Google and Twitter along with a slew of other big-name tech companies and civil liberties groups . Other technology companies , including Twitter and LinkedIn , are joining Google and releasing their own transparency reports . The United States Justice department is against any updates to the law that would require more warrants . Revising the ECPA would n't prohibit the government and law enforcement agencies from requesting the information , it would just require they go through an approval process to get the warrants . In a bit of circular logic , the Justice Department has argued that the electronic evidence gathered without warrants is necessary to build enough of a case to later get search warrants .
Google 's Transparency Report shows increase in government requests for private data . U.S. made 7,969 requests for users ' Google data in the first six months of 2012 . Google pushing for an overhaul of the ECPA law which allows warrantless data requests .