In the name of transparency, Facebook published Tuesday its first report of government requests for member data, listing out the number of requests and accounts requested per country.
According to the
report, the US, by far the largest data seeker on the list, made between 11,000 and 12,000 requests for data on 20,000 to 21,000 Facebook users in the first six months of 2013. The social network said it produced "some data" on 79 percent of the requests. Altogether, Facebook fielded around 26,000 requests from 71 countries for data on more than 38,000 members.
Facebook said the report covers every request for user data received between January 1 and June 30. The transparency effort is meant to reassure the public that Facebook handles requests for member data with their right to privacy in mind and does not secretly collaborate with agencies like the National Security Agency, as previous reports have alleged.
