Indian govt made 18-20 information requests/day from Facebook in first half of ... - India Today

The Indian establishment has made the maximum number of government data requests to Facebook, second only to the US government. The Rupee devaluation is, presently, pulling the Indian government down on most lists but there is a list where it is pitching only second to the United States in terms of ranking. The Indian establishment has made the maximum number of government data requests to Facebook, second only to the US government, according to the data released by the social networking major. For the uninitiated, the government requests are official representations made to Facebook as a company to furnish information about its users. It also includes requests made where user accounts are specified. The first such list collated for the first six months of 2013 pegs total such Indian requests at 3,245 and the user account specific request at 4,144. There's a percentage of these requests in which Facebook is required by law, to disclose at least some data. In India's case, information was furnished in 50 per cent of the requests made. Reading between the lines here, the other half of the requests made by the Indian government were not for information wherein provisioning of the data was necessitated by the law. Governments globally, make requests to Facebook and many other companies seeking account information in official investigations. The vast majority of these requests relate to criminal cases, such as robberies or kidnappings. 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. The list collated for the first six months of 2003 pegs total such Indian requests at 3,245 and the user account specific request at 4,144. Interestingly, the US data on the list has been offered in the range of 11,000-12,000 total requests and 20,000-21,000 account specific requests as the regulation in the US does not allow Facebook to publish specific numbers. According to the disclaimers Facebook has made, it is "pushing the US government to allow more transparency regarding these requests". France, Germany and Italy are the other three countries that are high on the number of Government requests made to Facebook for information. "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," says Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch. The company is expected to come up with these reports regularly and hopes to provide even more information about the requests they receive from law enforcement authorities. via Technology - Google News http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=t&fd=R&usg=AFQjCNELQYsRngjLDb8iq_o1ciMifQSINg&url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/indian-govt-made-18-20-information-requests-day-from-facebook/1/304381.html

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