NEW DELHI, Dec 25: Social networking giant Facebook received 609 requests from Indian government agencies to preserve account records of 850 users/accounts in the first half of the year, the fourth highest after the US, Canada and Brazil.
This is the first time that the US-based firm has disclosed the number of ‘preservation requests’ it receives across countries from government agencies as part of its Government Requests Report.
“We will take steps to preserve account records in connection with official criminal investigations for 90 days pending our receipt of formal legal process,” it said.
Facebook Deputy General Counsel Chris Sonderby said when Facebook receives a preservation request, it will preserve a temporary snapshot of the relevant account information.
“We do not disclose any of the preserved records unless and until we receive formal and valid legal process. During this reporting period, we received 38,675 preservation requests for 67,129 accounts,” he added.
According to the report, the US had requested 31,893 preservations, while Canada and Brazil had 1,163 and 777 such requests, respectively in the first half of 2016.
India also made 6,324 data requests during January-June 2016, up from 5,561 in the previous six months. Facebook said it was able to produce “some data” in 53.59 per cent of the cases, up from just over 50 per cent as stated in the previous report.
“We respond to valid requests relating to criminal cases. Each and every request we receive is checked for legal sufficiency and we reject or require greater specificity on requests that are overly broad or vague,” it said.
Of the 6,324 requests, 6,282 were with respect to “legal process”, while 42 were “emergency” requests, the report said.
Sonderby said Facebook may disclose information where it believes that the matter involves imminent risk of serious injury or death. In all of these cases, it will require law enforcement to describe the emergency and explain how the requested disclosure might prevent harm.
In the July-December 2015 report, Facebook had said it received 5,561 requests seeking details of 7,018 users/ accounts from Indian government agencies.
This is the second highest after the US, which made 23,854 requests for 38,951 users/accounts during January-June 2016.
Facebook also restricted access to 2,034 content in India.
“We restricted access to content in India in response to legal requests from law enforcement agencies and the India Computer Emergency Response Team within the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The majority of content restricted was alleged to violate local laws against anti-religious speech and hate speech,” it said. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel