Almost 21,000 requests for information were made to Google by governments in the first half of 2012.

The figure emerged as part of Google’s recent Transparency Report, with the American government again the most zealous in pursuing data with 7,969 requests.

British appeals doubled to 1,425 during the first six months of 2012, with the search engine giant complying with 64 per cent of these requests.

Dorothy Chou, Google’s Senior Policy Analyst, told the BBC that, “This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: government surveillance is on the rise.

“It reflects laws on the ground. For example in Turkey there are specific laws about defaming public figures whereas in Germany we get requests to remove neo-Nazi content. And in Brazil we get a lot of requests to remove content during elections because there is a law banning parodies of candidates.

“We hope that the report will shed light on how governments interact with online services and how laws are reflected in online behaviour.”

In total requests for user data affected 34, 614 people, with governments seeking to gain access to their search history, Gmail accounts or YouTube videos. 

The Turkish government made 501 requests for content to be taken down, with the US making 273 whilst Germany was third with 247 demands. The most common reasons for removing information or online content are defamation, privacy breaches or security issues.

The report also disclosed the fact that a British law enforcement agency made 14 requests to have information criticising the police removed but Google rejected their appeals. The company also turned down a demand to remove a YouTube video that accused the police of racism.

Take this with a pinch of salt from someone who earns a living using these tools and sites….

Our generation is totally obsessed with social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, which have taken the world by storm. To be honest, what is there not to like? A virtual world where you can express your deepest thoughts, connect with old friends or simply feel important and a part of something, where’s the harm in that? It has loads of other benefits such as promoting businesses, creating a sense of unity amongst people all over the world and can be lots of fun. However, if not used carefully and with caution, things can quickly turn sour and affect your work environment, education and relationships with your partners and/or family.

It saddens me how I’ve watched these cool and trendy social networking sites damage many friendships and relationships over the years. In the real world, perception is everything and how we perceive certain things depends on the individual’s tone of voice, facial expression, eye contact and physical contact, which are all alien in the world of Twitter and Facebook. Sitting with a friend in a coffee shop where she turns around and shouts with confidence “you are one of the dumbest people I have ever met” with a cheeky smile, it is obvious that it is a mischievous joke between friends whereas such a statement similar to that in a social networking site can viewed as a direct insult and can be seen as quite offensive. What we need to understand is that something tweeted or posted on Facebook that was intended innocently may not be always be translated so to a boyfriend, girlfriend or a friend.

Due to this, you would think that people would be more selective over the things they write. Well, apparently not. After a crazy Friday night filled with drinks and adventures, guys tend to head to twitter to tweet about all the fine women and crazy things they have done. Even if it is completely innocent, unnecessary arguments and tensions are caused in relationships due to carelessness and lack of sensitivity. What tends to make it worse is that when your close friends or family members have your other half on their Facebook or Twitter profiles, they naturally will be watching every post like a hawk with sceptic eyes, where the smallest trivial thing may look like a great deceit.

It is not a surprise that Twitter and Facebook is a gossiper’s best friend, they simply need to follow the person or click ‘add as friend’ and they get all the gossips they need. Expressing your life problems and your every move makes it even easier for people to use stuff against you. These days it is obvious that women no longer need to go through their boyfriend’s phone as they did in the past because having him as a friend on a social networking site makes it much easier to snoop.

Not only can Facebook and Twitter fracture and destroy romantic relationships, it can also destroy friendships. If you tell a white lie to a friend about how you cannot come to their birthday party due to a sudden and violent case of flu, do not forget your lie and post on Twitter how you are shaking a leg at the new club opening in central London. Do not forget that you can get tagged in photos or a friend could write on your wall, exposing your whereabouts. This is a very dangerous game to play, especially with friends who have such close access to your social networking sites.

I am not saying that you cannot maintain healthy relationships with social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook but one must be careful of what they expose on them.

Here are a few tips to help you keep your social networking sites whilst maintaining your privacy, friendships and relationships:

Protect your tweets – This allows you to have no limitation of what you want to express but keep in mind that interacting with a friend’s unprotected Twitter account will mean that others will be able to see the interaction between both of you.
Be my friend on Facebook – Make sure that a person must first friend you on Facebook in order to see your wall, pictures, and relationship statuses and so on, in order to protect your privacy from nosey people.
Thoughts over whereabouts – Facebook and Twitter are great for telling people your deepest thoughts and feelings but whereabouts, not so much. This is better in such a case where you may need/want to tell someone a white lie about where you were on Friday night.
Do not friend/follow frenemies, co-workers or your boyfriend’s family – Trust me, it’s easier that way.

http://m.youtube.com/?client=mv-rim

Settle down with me, cover me up, cuddle me in
Lie down with me, yeah, and hold me in your arms
And your heart’s against my chest, your lips pressed to my neck
I’m falling for your eyes but they don’t know me yet
And with a feeling I’ll forget, I’m in love now

Kiss me like you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved
This feels like falling in love, falling in love, falling in love

Settle down with me and I’ll be your safety, you’ll be my lady
I was made to keep your body warm but I’m cold as the wind blows
So hold me in your arms
My heart’s against your chest, your lips pressed to my neck
I’m falling for your eyes but they don’t know me yet
And with this feeling I’ll forget, I’m in love now

Kiss me like you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved
This feels like falling in love, falling in love, falling in love

Yeah I’ve been feeling everything
From hate to love from love to lust from lust to truth
I guess that’s how I know you
So hold you close to help you give it up

So kiss me like you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved
This feels like falling in love, falling in love, falling in love
Kiss me like you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved, you wanna be loved
This feels like falling in love, falling in love, falling in love

While the globe grapples with uncertain economic realities, “mobile” appears to be gold.

Facebook is expected to announce their uniquely targeted mobile advertising model before the end of the month. Amazon is talking to Chinese manufacturer Fox Conn with ambitions of building their own mobile device to serve as a complement to Amazon’s considerable digital ecosystem of products and services. China itself has surpassed the US as the world’s dominant smartphone market with over a billion subscribers and roughly 400 million mobile web users. Advisory firm IDC predicts that by 2014 there will have been over 76 billion mobile apps downloaded resulting in an app economy worth an estimated thirty five billion in the same year. Mobile business will become big business in the not so distant future.

However, there will be blood as the business world pursues the mobile gold rush.

We’ve seen this movie before. In the early days of the web, it was the website that created a browser-fueled gold rush — until organizations realized that maintaining a website that provided real value was more difficult than launching something quickly. The same story is now playing out in social — getting something launched on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest is easy, but building an engaged and meaningful following isn’t. And the same will happen in the rush to mobile if companies take a “channel” approach vs. a behavioral approach. In short, it’s not about mobile as much as it is about understanding mobility.

In the early days of digital, the core behavior we needed to understand was that people wanted information at their fingertips and the convenience that came with digital transactions. In the social era it was all these things plus social connectivity. Mobility means information, convenience, and social all served up on the go, across a variety of screen sizes and devices.

Mobility is radically different from the stationary “desktop” experience. In some cases, mobility is a “lean back” experience like sitting on a commuter train watching a video. In other cases it can be “lean forward” — like shopping for a gift while you take your lunch break at the park. And in many cases, it’s “lean free” when your body is in motion, or you’re standing in line scanning news headlines or photos from friends while you wait for your turn to be called.

Mobility trumps mobile. The difference between mobility and mobile is like the difference between hardware and software. Mobile is linked to devices — it is always one thing, wherever it is. But mobility changes with context: cultures incorporate mobile technologies differently. For example, in Africa, SMS technology helps farmers pay bills electronically. In America, it helps teenagers keep up with their friends — an average of 60 times a day. Mobile itself is the nuts, bolts, and infrastructure, while mobility is the context which determines if it all works together or doesn’t.

To avoid “bloodshed” in mobile, learn from past lessons in Web, digital and social. Improve your understanding of the nuances of mobility and mobile behaviors before you ramp up your investment in mobile. Resist the temptation to rely too much on a guru; hiring a guru will only take your organization so far. Many of the organizations who brought in “social media gurus” learned this lesson the hard way. A single individual cannot scale. However, if the organization is willing to put real teeth behind their mobile efforts, a single smart person can help form a center of excellence. Establishing a center of excellence that puts mobility at the core, and integrates it with other business initiatives, can get a business thinking about mobile more strategically.

Secondly, realize that going mobile is not the same thing as having an app. In fact, avoid the temptation to “app everything.” A lot of content — whether video or text-based — can easily be optimized for mobile consumption. Popular apps such as Flipboard or Pulse point to a future of consumer “appgregation” — using one app to aggregate many sources of content. Instead of creating a whole host of apps that few are likely to download, invest in making your “digital ecosystem” more mobile-friendly.

Lastly, don’t put mobile tactics in front of strategy. In the early days of the web, every site seemed to have an animated GIF or a clunky site-counter. In the early days of social, companies spent millions on costly Facebook apps with cute gimmicks but no real utility or sharing value. Today, companies are scrambling to come up with something “mobile” whether or not it makes sense for their long-term business goals, and whether or not users will actually want it. The outcome is the same in across all of these examples: a low number of visits/installs/downloads and ho-hum business results. Tomorrow’s winners of today’s mobile gold rush will boast significant (and sustainable) usage numbers due to the value of their content, whether it’s sheer utility or impossible-to-ignore entertainment value.

Today’s mobile realities are stark. Competition is fierce and users are demanding. If your company wants to put out a fitness app, you’re competing not just with Nike FuelBand or Run Keeper, but with dozens of other apps put out by scrappy start-ups.

Before doubling down on mobile, any business should first ask themselves if they really understand mobility as a behavior and lifestyle, followed by tough questions about the role mobile plays in their business. From there, a strategy for mobile, built on an understanding of mobility, can take root.

Build on the expensive lessons learned from past bubbles and there will be less “blood” all around.