Government Requests For User Data From Big Tech Companies On The Rise - Report
The Surfshark research hub analyzed user data requests that Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft received from government agencies of 177 countries between 2013 and 2021.
- "Governments request more user data than ever. The number of accounts requested increased more than five times from 2013 to 2021, with 2021 seeing a year-over-year increase of around 25%."
- "While most requests relate to criminal investigations, information may also be requested in the context of civil or administrative cases."
- "The US and the EU authorities request data the most. Both account for around 60% of all accounts of interest from 2013 to 2021. To compare the two, the US requested more than double the accounts per 100K people than all the EU countries combined."
- "Companies comply with more requests every year. On average, each year saw a 56k increase in disclosed requests, growing from 127k in 2013 to 592k in 2021."
- "Meta hosted the most accounts that interested authorities among all four companies (2.8M) - or two out of five accounts requested during this time (6.6M). Apple held the fewest requested accounts - 416K - or just 6% of total accounts of interest to authorities."
- "The US tops the list with nearly 1 account per 100 people throughout 2013-2021. Looking at the top 10, five countries are from the EU. Singapore, the U.K., Australia, and Taiwan comprise the rest."
- "On average, companies complied with 71% of user data requests between 2013 and 2021."
