Google Inc. (GOOG) Message Board

to sovereign countries.

Google stores global search term data and global customer email and blogging data for 6mo to 1yr, but it could store the more abstract cross-sectional and time series customer data indefinitely.

As you have just learned recently, Google could share these huge amount of data legally with US government agency, such as NSA. Once NSA obtains the database of Google's search history database and email correspondence, it can then extract crucial information on people's sentiment, interest, behavior and emotions. And a time series databset could provide insights on how things has changed over time and over geographic regions ( identified by IP ).

These data could be useful for commercial purpose, or be used for planning for regime changes. So these info could be related to national security.

That is probably, in my view, why Chinese government wanted Google out. That is probably why any truly sovereign nation, such as India, Brazil, France, Russia, or Germany, want Google out. (UK does not care because it has already become the affiliate of the Great USA.) They will probably not kick Google right away, but will gradually achieve the goal by piling up choking anti-trust lawsuits against google's local business.