New York: Indian government agencies sent 609 requests to social networking site Facebook 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.
With PTI Inputs
Source: Zee News