Facebook says government requests for data continue to rise

Governments often request basic subscriber information, IP addresses or account content, including people's posts online

Facebook Inc said on Thursday that government requests for account data increased by 13 per cent in the second half of 2015, with the United States and India topping the list.

Government requests for account data increased to 46,763 from 41,214 in the first half of the year, the company said in a biannual report. The number of requests jumped 18 percent in the first half of the year.

Government access to personal data from telephone and internet companies has become a bone of contention since former US. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked classified details of a program to collect bulk telephone metadata in 2013.

Governments often request basic subscriber information, IP addresses or account content, including people's posts online.

Facebook has about 1.65 billion regular users, or about one in every four people in the world.

Facebook said about 60 per cent of requests in the United States had a non-disclosure order prohibiting the company from notifying the user of the government request.

This was the first time Facebook has included details on non-disclosure orders since it started issuing the global requests reports in 2013.

Photograph: Dado Ruvic/Reuters