Facebook Inc said it has received
11,000 to 12,000 applications for data from the individuals of U.S. government
during the first half of this year. Bulk of those applications is related to
the inspections of crimes such as kidnappings and robberies. The number as represented
by Facebook on its website represents a small portion of over 1 billion users
of social network. Facebook said it has produced some data in response to 79 %
of the inquiries received from U.S. officials.
Technology companies like Facebook,
Microsoft Corporation and Google Inc have pushed the U.S. government for more
flexibility to report combined numbers of requests for data, in response to the
reports former this year that the National Security Agency of U.S. is obtaining
millions of residents’ telephone records and computer communications of outsiders
from Web businesses as per the order of court. Governments must satisfy a very
high legal bar to obtain any information about users, as said by Facebook.
The company has battled many of
these applications, pushing back when it find legal deficiencies and narrowing
the scope of overly extensive or fuzzy requests, as said by the general counsel
of Facebook (Colin Stretch) on the company’s website. When the company is obligatory
to abide by a particular request then it often shares only the crucial
information of user such as the name, he further said.
The officials of U.S. sent 9,000 to
10,000 applications for data in the prior six months of 2012. The U.S. had the
majority applications of any country during the present reporting period.
According to the report, Facebook has obtained nearly 15,000 applications for
data outside the U.S. during the first half of 2013. Overall the explorations
covered approximately 40,000 users all over the world and came from over 70
countries. The shares of Facebook plunge 4.1 % to $39.64 at the close in New
York.
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