A quick one: I just discovered this page on Google.com where they are making public the amount of times a government requests data about a Google user, or requests removal of information:
[more]

http://www.google.com/governmentrequests/

I applaud their openness, and feel sure Google’s motive is to stimulate discussion around a very sensitive area of the provision of services and information.

Should I take comfort from the fact that our government requested information on approximately 30 times more people than the likes of Japan, Canada, South Korea and Switzerland? It would be interesting to see per capita figures…

Still it could be worse, take at look at China: “Chinese officials consider censorship demands as state secrets, so we
cannot disclose that information at this time.”

I’m going to bookmark this one and check in from time to time.