You can now see how often your government requests private data or censorship from Google.

I know this isn’t directly related to IT issues, but we are in the business of information trafficking and information is power. Google is wielding so much of this power, in fact that governments around the world request private information from Google about users and data. Google has released a tool to put some transparency on government requests for information. This demonstrates Google’s stance on open internet use and transparency. The online search provider is disclosing just how often governments request to remove content, as well as government demands to censor its applications. Google said it hopes to shed light on the practices of governments and their attempts to censor information on the internet.

More than 40 governments censor information today, up from four in 2002. China has firewalls in place so domestic users can’t access information, as well as technological barricades preventing users from communicating with each other. China considers censorship demands as state secrets, so Google is not disclosing China’s removal requests at this time.

Think the United States respects your privacy more than other nations? Google showed that Brazil and the United States made the most requests for private user data from July to December, 2009. Brazil demanded the most pages be removed from Orkut, a social networking site. Germany demanded removing a lot of pro-Nazi material.

Expect to see a lot more court cases and bickering over net neutrality in the next few years. My theory is that Google and the Obama administration are wielding so much power on this issue, we can expect to see some solidifying court rulings in favor of net-neutrality soon.