Google: 'Government surveillance is on the rise'

• how easily the U.S. government can access citizens' private e-mails.
• 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.
• 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.