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Google today admitted that it had received - and complied with - a record number of requests from governments to reveal information about its users. The latest edition of the search giant's Transparency Report shows governments around the world made nearly 21,000 requests to access its data in the first six months of 2012.

The U.S. government made the most demands, asking for users' details 7,969 times between January and June this year. The UK came sixth - behind Germany and France - with 1,425 requests. 'This is the sixth time we’ve released this data, and one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise,' Dorothy Chou, a senior policy analyst for Google, said in a blog post. 'In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts.'

In common with other technology and communications firms, Google is regularly asked by courts and government agencies around the world to hand over information about its users. As well as search histories, it holds data on users' contacts and communications through Gmail, viewing preferences on YouTube, photos on Picasa, documents stored on Google Drive, and information about authors' identities on Blogger.

Big Brother is watching.

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Suicidal Freddie Starr says his life is 'ruined' after his arrest by detectives investigating Jimmy Savile's decades of paedophilia and admits 'I want to go and end it all'. The comedian has hit rock bottom after being arrested earlier this month and banned from being left alone with his own children by social services while the abuse claim against him is investigated. 

Starr is accused of molesting a 14-year-old in Savile's BBC dressing room forty years ago, which he denies and says the strain of the investigation is giving him heart problems. 'My life is ruined. I feel so desperate at times I want to go and end it all,' he told the Mirror, adding: 'It’s heartbreaking because I’m totally innocent. It makes me feel suicidal. I don’t think I can ever work again – how can I put a comedy face on after this?'

The former television star, 69, was bailed earlier this month and has not been charged with any offence. The comedian was named by Karin Ward who claims she was groped by him at a Savile sex party 40 years ago after appearing on television alongside him. Starr had denied meeting his accuser but a video later emerged of the pair of them together on Savile’s show ‘Clunk Click’ in 1974. Warwickshire social services has now ordered he can only spend time with his own children when his fiancee Sophie Lea, 34,is with them at their home south of Birmingham.

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