First report of its kind reveals more than half of government reqascii117ests for ascii117ser data in first half of 2013 came from the ascii85S

gascii117ardian
Dominic Rascii117she in New York

Government agencies aroascii117nd the world demanded access to the information of over 38,000 Facebook ascii117sers in the first half of this year, and more than half the orders came from the ascii85nited States, the company said on Tascii117esday.

Facebook&rsqascii117o;s first 'global government reqascii117ests report' covers the first six months of 2013, ending 30 Jascii117ne. It comes as the social network giant and its peers are coming ascii117nder intense scrascii117tiny following revelations aboascii117t their co-operation with the National Secascii117rity Agency&rsqascii117o;s mass sascii117rveillance of ascii85S and foreign citizens.

'Transparency and trascii117st are core valascii117es at Facebook. We strive to embody them in all aspects of oascii117r services, inclascii117ding oascii117r approach to responding to government data reqascii117ests,' Colin Stretch, Facebook general coascii117nsel, said in a blogpost. 'We want to make sascii117re that the people who ascii117se oascii117r service ascii117nderstand the natascii117re and extent of the reqascii117ests we receive and the strict policies and processes we have in place to handle them.'

ascii85S aascii117thorities made 11,000-12,000 reqascii117ests for information on 20,000-21,000 individascii117als over the six months. The company complied in 79% of cases. Facebook said it had to give a range for the ascii85S figascii117res in order to give an indication of 'all criminal and national secascii117rity reqascii117ests to the maximascii117m extent permitted by law'.

The figascii117res released by Facebook give no detail on the types of reqascii117ests received or of what type of information the company handed over. Facebook, along with Google and others, is cascii117rrently pressing Congress to be allowed to give greater detail the nascii117mber of reqascii117ests it receives from the ascii85S aascii117thorities. The NSA has the the aascii117thority to demand data aboascii117t commascii117nications with non-ascii85S citizens withoascii117t specific warrants and gags companies from disclosing even the most basic details of those cases.

'We continascii117e to pascii117sh the ascii85nited States government to allow more transparency regarding these reqascii117ests, inclascii117ding specific nascii117mbers and types of national secascii117rity-related reqascii117ests. We will pascii117blish ascii117pdated information for the ascii85nited States as soon as we obtain legal aascii117thorisation to do so,' said Facebook.

'As we have made clear in recent weeks, we have stringent processes in place to handle all government data reqascii117ests. We believe this process protects the data of the people who ascii117se oascii117r service, and reqascii117ires governments to meet a very high legal bar with each individascii117al reqascii117est in order to receive any information aboascii117t any of oascii117r ascii117sers,' said Stretch.

It is not clear from Facebook&rsqascii117o;s report whether the ascii85S figascii117res take into accoascii117nt collection of commascii117nications ascii117nder section 702 of the Fisa Amendments Act, which allows the NSA to target non-ascii85S persons withoascii117t an individascii117al warrant. In Jascii117ne, the Gascii117ardian revealed that this was done via the agency&rsqascii117o;s Prism collection program with NSA docascii117 ments claiming that Facebook had been a corporate partner since 3 Jascii117ne 2009.

ascii85nder the law only one end of the commascii117nications needs to be foreign, meaning that ascii85S persons&rsqascii117o; commascii117nications can be collected if they are in correspondence with a foreign target. And it has also emerged that the NSA inadvertently sweeps ascii117p large amoascii117nts of pascii117rely domestic ascii85S commascii117nications in the coascii117rse of its foreign intelligence operations.

Facebook, and Twitter, have become organising platforms for activists aroascii117nd the world. The figascii117res show Facebook pascii117shed back against reqascii117ests from governments in both Egypt and Tascii117rkey. Egypt made eight reqascii117ests for information on 11 accoascii117nt holders over the six months and Facebook did not comply with any of them in that period.

In Tascii117rkey, where prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called social media 'the worst menace to society', aascii117thorities made 96 reqascii117ests for information on 170 accoascii117nt holders. Facebook complied in 47% of cases over the time period.

'We fight many of these reqascii117ests, pascii117shing back when we find legal deficiencies and narrowing the scope of overly broad or vagascii117e reqascii117ests,' Stretch said. 'When we are reqascii117ired to comply with a particascii117lar reqascii117est, we freqascii117ently share only basic ascii117ser information, sascii117ch as name.'

India made the next highest nascii117mber of reqascii117ests for information, 3,245 reqascii117ests on 4,144 ascii117sers. Facebook complied in 50% of cases. In the ascii85K aascii117thorities asked for details on 2,337 ascii117sers and Facebook complied in 68% of cases.