Record number of govt requests for Facebook user data in first half of 2020
The Bangladesh government made 241 requests for data to Facebook in the first half of 2020, a new record high.
Compared to the first half of 2019, when the government made 95 requests, this year in the same time period, the government made 2.5 times more requests for information.
This information was made public by Facebook recently, in their global transparency report.
The report also showed that the government requested information about 371 specific accounts/users in the first half of 2020. In the same period in 2019, the government requested information about 123 accounts/users.
Of the requests made by the government, 44 percent were accepted, with Facebook providing some sort of data to the requesting party.
Another observation that can be noticed from the report is that the government is increasingly relying on legal processes to acquire the data.
The data requested by the government are divided into two categories: the legal process is usually the lengthy process of requesting data -- requiring subpoena, court order or warrant -- whereas emergency requests are ones where the government can request data on grounds of imminent harm to a child or risk of death or serious physical injury to any person.
In the first half of this year, requests for data made through legal processes were 58.9 percent, compared to 15.8 percent in the first half of last year.
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