Facebook reveals all US national security-related requests for data: with over 9,000 requests made in H2 of 2012
Facebook has revealed all US national-security requests for data it has received, including requests for data for non-US users.
The social networking site revealed that between 9,000 and 10,000 requests for data were received from any and all government entities in the US (including local, state, and federal, and including criminal and national security-related requests) in the second half of 2012.
Facebook said: “The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested pursuant to the entirety of those 9-10 thousand requests was between 18,000 and 19,000 accounts.
“With more than 1.1 billion monthly active users worldwide, this means that a tiny fraction of one percent of our user accounts were the subject of any kind of U.S. state, local, or federal US government request (including criminal and national security-related requests) in the past six months. We hope this helps put into perspective the numbers involved, and lays to rest some of the hyperbolic and false assertions in some recent press accounts about the frequency and scope of the data requests that we receive.
“We will continue to be vigilant in protecting our users’ data from unwarranted government requests, and we will continue to push all governments to be as transparent as possible.”
Early reports from PRISM suggested that hundreds of thousands or even millions were targeted.