Facebook is receiving more government data requests than ever before
The time has rolled around once again for Facebook to release its twice-yearly report about government data requests. It will perhaps come as little surprise that in the current atmosphere of surveillance and privacy concerns that in the first half of 2015 Facebook received more government data requests than ever before.
The latest figures show that the number of data requests has jumped by 18 percent to 41,214. There was also a massive increase in the number of pieces of content that were taken down or 'restricted' for violating local laws -- a rise of 112 percent. Facebook reiterated previous assertions that it does not provide backdoor access to governments, and reveals that the US is by far the leading requester of data.
The latest Government Requests Report shows that the US was responsible for 17,577 requests relating to over 26,000 individuals. In just 20 percent of cases, no data was handed over -- in four fifths of cases Facebook imparted at least some information. India is the leading source of requests for content restrictions, accounting for a full 75 percent of all such requests.
In a blog post, Facebook's Deputy General Counsel, Chris Sonderby says:
As we have emphasized before, Facebook does not provide any government with "back doors" or direct access to people's data. We scrutinize each request we receive for legal sufficiency, whether from an authority in the US, Europe, or elsewhere. If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary.
Over the last two years, we've regularly published information about the nature and extent of the requests we receive. To protect people's information, we will continue to apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive. We’ll also keep working with partners in industry and civil society to push governments around the world to reform surveillance in a way that protects their citizens' safety and security while respecting their rights and freedoms.
The full report takes the form of an interactive map, and there is the option of downloading the data in CSV format if you like the idea o crunching them in a spreadsheet.
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