The government agencies asked Facebook for the information of 38,000 users worldwide in the first half of 2013, in which more than half of the orders came from the United States, according to the company. The global government request report of Facebook covers the first half of 2013, ending June 30. The company claims to have handled it in a strict way, keeping the interests of its customers and users in mind.
“Transparency and trust are core values at Facebook. We strive to embody them in all aspects of our services, including our approach to responding to government data requests,” Colin Stretch, Facebook general counsel, said in a blog post. “We want to make sure that the people who use our service understand the nature and extent of the requests we receive and the strict policies and processes we have in place to handle them.”
Over the past six months the US authorities asked for the data of around 20,000-21,000. In these six months the company compiled about 79% of the cases. Facebook had to give the indication of all the criminals of these cases and the requests for national security to the US authorities. The figures released by Facebook contain no details on what types of requests it received or in return what type of information it had given. Facebook along with Google had to hand over much greater details about the requests they received from the US authorities.
“We continue to push the United States government to allow more transparency regarding these requests, including specific numbers and types of national security-related requests. We will publish updated information for the United States as soon as we obtain legal authorization to do so,” said Facebook.
Facebook and Twitter, globally, are used as a platform by activists to plan their movements, activities and protests. In both Egypt and Turkey, Facebook pushed back against the requests from both the governments. Egypt, over the past six months, made eight requests for information on 11 account holders and in return Facebook maintained confidentiality and did not provide any information. India after the US is the second largest country with the highest number of requests for information that is 3,245 requests on 4,144 users.
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