12,000 Facebook data requests made by US Government during first half of 2013

Social networking giant Facebook on Tuesday released its third Government Requests Report that are meant to provide greater transparency over the amount of data authorities try to source from it.

According to its latest transparency report, the California-based company received 34,946 data requests during the first six months of this year.

The report showed that the Facebook witnessed a 24 percent surge in the number of data requests that it received since second semester of this year– 34,946 total worldwide.

In addition, it also saw a 19 percent rise in the amount of data held back due to the local laws.

The social networking giant received 15,433 requests in the US during the first half of this year, pertaining to data about 23,667 FB accounts. The site gave response to 80.15 percent of these total requests.

According to the company, with 7,676 total requests the most common request type from the US was ‘search warrants’. The company complied with data to 84.35 percent of these requests.

Facebook’s deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby underlined that the company challenged bulk search warrants that were issued by a New York court, demanding data for a staggering 400 accounts alone.

Sonderby described the high demand as an “unprecedented request” that the largest social networking brand had ever seen.

“We’ve argued that these overly broad warrants violate the privacy rights of the people on Facebook and ignore constitutional safeguards against unreasonable searches and seizures. Despite a setback in the lower court, we’re aggressively pursuing an appeal to a higher court to invalidate these sweeping warrants and to force the government to return the data it has seized,” Sonderby wrote in a post.

Meanwhile, Sonderby also said that the company has updated information related to national security requests that were submitted via National Security Letters and under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Facebook enjoys a user base of approximately 1.35 billion monthly active users, as per the figures recorded in late September.

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Anne-Marie Jackson

Anna grew up on a steady diet of 20th century literature, science-fiction movies and Viking lore. Unsurprisingly she turned into a technology geek with an inclination for history & fantasy.