Tag Archives: transparency

Facebook says it rejects 20% of government user data requests

By SB Anderson

Countries that made the most data requests of Facebook in the fist half of 2013.

Finally catching up with competitors such as Google who have issued transparency reports for several years, Facebook on Tuesday released its first-ever “Global Government Requests Report” detailing the number of times officials in various countries sought data about users and accounts.

The report covers the first half of 2013 and says the U.S. made between 11,000 and 12,000 requests involving between 20,000 and 21,000 users or accounts. Facebook complied with 79% of those requests. The range for the U.S. vs. a specific number for other countries is believed to be because of U.S. requirements that requests involving national security can only be released in ranges. Facebook and several of its rivals are urging the government to allow specific numbers be released instead of ranges.

“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,” Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch said in releasing the data.

Facebook’s data seems to indicate a significant drop-off in the number of users or accounts from the second half of 2012. In first-ever data it released after the PRISM program details were first leaked by Edward Snowden earlier this year, it said it had received 9,000-10,000 requests involving 18,000-19,00 users or accounts between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2012. (See a table that summarizes data reports from a variety of companies).

Globally, Facebook said it has up to 26,607 requests involving 38,954 users in about 70 countries. The average compliance rate was 33%. India (3,245 requests and 4,144 users/accounts) and the United Kingdom (3,245/4,144) were No. 2 and No. 3 behind the U.S.

“The vast majority of these requests relate to criminal cases, such as robberies or kidnappings,” Facebook’s Stretch said. “In many of these cases, these government requests seek basic subscriber information, such as name and length of service. Other requests may also seek IP address logs or actual account content. We have strict guidelines in place to deal with all government data requests.”

Facebook’s compliance rate is higher than Twitter’s (it reported 67% a few weeks ago) and is about the same as Microsoft, which reported about 80% for 2012, and is lower than Google’s most recently reported 88%, which itself was down from 94%.

→ Earlier stories on transparency reports.

ON THE JUMP: A sortable chart with all the Facebook data.

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U.S. requests for Twitter user data up 11% in first half of 2013

By SB Anderson

Twitter kicked off what has become semi-annual transparency report season late last week, reporting an 11% increase in requests from the U.S. government for data about its users in the first half of 2013 compared to July to December of last year. Compared to the same period a year ago, requests were up 33%.

From Jan. 1 to June 30, there were 902 requests from the U.S., making up about 78% of requests from all countries.

The number of users or accounts affected by those U.S. requests was up 15%, while the number of cases in which data was ultimately released was down slightly to 67%.

Similar transaprency reports from Google and Microsoft are expected soon. Those two and Twitter have been making regular updates on user data requests, with Google doing so the longest — and with the most detail.

The reports in recent months are of greater urgency given recent controversy over government surveillance.

Earlier this summer, a number of companies that had not traditionally been making regular releases about data requests issued reports in response to revelations that the National Security Administration was amassing enormous databases of online and phone activity. (View a table with that data here).

In the U.S., the percentage of requests that came via search warrant was up slightly while the number from subpoenas — the most common — was down by the same amount.

The U.S. accounts for about 4 out of 5 requests from around the world, although that number dropped slightly in the first half of 2013 as the number of non-US requests rose by nearly one-third.

Japan had the most requests after the U.S., but that was only 8% of total requests. In almost all cases, data is actually released to foreign countries at a much lower rate than in the U.S. The percentage for Japan, for example, was 16% compared to 67% in the U.S.

The chart below shows growth in global requests.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests up in 2012, but National Security Letters down

By SB Anderson

An annual government report on national security investigation legal probes involving foreign intelligence shows an uptick in requests to do surveillance or searches of people suspected of being involved in terrorism against the U.S.

Law enforcement officials made 1,856 so-called “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Requests”to a special panel of judges in 2012 and all of them were approved, an annual report from the Department of Justice this week showed. In 40 cases, the judicial review panel asked for modifications; in one case, the government withdrew its request.

That total was 6% higher than 2011, when 1,745 requests were made.

Nearly all the requests in 2012 and 2011 — 96% — were for authority to conduct surveillance. The remainder were for physical searches.

National Security Letters issues by the the FBI were down about 8%, dropping to 15,229. Those requests involved 6,223 individuals — 14% fewer than a year earlier.

The controversial National Security Letters are demands from the FBI for certain information about someone — and they can come along with a order to not even disclose that a request was made.

The 2012 Report sent to the U.S. Senate. | Earlier reports.

SOURCE: OnTheBeat graphics using EPIC.org compilation from Federation of American Scientists document collection.

National Security Letter requests a new addition to transparency reports from Google, Microsoft

By SB Anderson

Microsoft’s release this week of its first transparency report about what user information and data governments seek from it included data about one of the most secret, and controversial, of all requests — National Security Letters from the FBI.

Google earlier this month added NSL data to the quarterly reports it had been releasing for several years. (See charts below).

Both companies, which are prohibited from providing specific information about the highly secretive FBI requests, reported they both had under 1,000 requests last year related to between 1,000 and 1,999 of its users. Both numbers were a decrease for Microsoft over 2011; for Google, the numbers were the same.

National Security Letters are demands from the FBI for certain information about someone — and they can come along with a order to not even disclose that a request was made. For communication providers, data requested includes “the name, address, length of service, and local and long distance toll billing records” that is “relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities.”

“The FBI can’t use NSLs to obtain anything else from Google, such as Gmail content, search queries, YouTube videos or user IP addresses,” Google notes in a FAQ about the NSLs.

Microsoft’s NSL requests

Google’s NSL requests

SOURCE: Microsoft and Google.

US went after info or content from the most Microsoft accounts in 2012, new report shows

By SB Anderson

Microsoft has joined Google and Twitter and this week released a transparency report about how many times governments and law enforcement ask it for information about its users. (“Caved” is how Slate described the release).

The US once again tops the global charts, filing requests involving 24,565 accounts in 2012, although it slightly trailed No. 1 Turkey in the total number of requests (11,073 vs. 11,434).

Content, such as a document or words in an email, was disclosed in 14% of the U.S. cases — one of only a small number of countries for which Microsoft ultimately released content.

Some 65% of US requests resulted in disclosing “non-content” data — a percentage that was lower than many countries. (That includes such data as IP addresses).

The UK, France and Germany followed Turkey and the US in requests and individual account totals.

Microsoft said services included in the report include email (Hotmail/Outlook.com), SkyDrive cloud storage; Messenger, Skype and Xbox.

Skype data was listed separately because that company is governed by European Union rules. Microsoft said it did not disclose any content from the 4,713 requests involving 15,409 accounts. It did give “guidance” to law enforcement in 501 of 2,847 cases in which its “compliance team found no data.”

“Content” requires a legal order or warrant to be released. It includes “what our customers create, communicate, and store on or through our services such as the words in an e-mail exchanged between friends or business colleagues or the photographs and documents stored on SkyDrive or in other cloud offerings such as O365 and Azure.”

“Non-content data” includes “basic subscriber information, such as the e-mail address, name, location and IP address captured at the time of registration.” That data is easier to get by law enforcement, requiring only a subpoena or “official, document based request.”

From this page, you can download Excel and PDF versions of the report and read a FAQ.

Chart below is an extract from a Microsoft table and shows statistics for the Top 10 countries.

Government requests for Google user data continue to rise — and requests in US triple the No. 2 country

By SB Anderson

The U.S. government ordered Google to turn over user data slightly more times in the second half of 2012 than the first half of the year, although the number of total user accounts affected was down for the first time since Google began releasing those numbers in 2010.

The fresh data from Google, released this morning, shows the U.S. government made 8,438 requests — the bulk of them (70%) by subpoena, and 22% via search warrant. This was the first time Google broke out the data by type of request. (UPDATE 1/28: Google explains how it handles requests for data).

Subpoenas involve “requests for user-identifying information, issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (“ECPA”), and are the easiest to get because they typically don’t involve judges,” Google said in a blog post about its semi-annual transparency report. Search warrants, Google said, “ generally speaking, [are] orders issued by judges under ECPA, based on a demonstration of “probable cause” to believe that certain information related to a crime is presently in the place to be searched.”

There were 758 “other” types of requests that included “court orders issued under ECPA by a judge and other court-issued legal process.” Those had a slightly higher rate of data being actually released — 90% vs. 88% for the others.

Overall, the percentage of requests that actually led to data being released continued a slow decline, from a high of 94% in 2010 to 88% in the latest period.

Once again, the U.S. led all countries globally in its requests (three times more than No.2 India), the number of accounts affected and the percentage of cases in which data was released. France, Germany and the United Kingdom finished up the Top 5.

Transparency Report | Download the data | HuffPost Live discussion about the data.

Google Graphic

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Tag Archives: transparency

Facebook says it rejects 20% of government user data requests

U.S. requests for Twitter user data up 11% in first half of 2013

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requests up in 2012, but National Security Letters down

National Security Letter requests a new addition to transparency reports from Google, Microsoft

US went after info or content from the most Microsoft accounts in 2012, new report shows

Government requests for Google user data continue to rise — and requests in US triple the No. 2 country