The number of government requests for Canadian Facebook user data has jumped significantly in the past year, and the social site appears to be growing more willing to hand that data over.
According to Facebook’s latest transparency report, there were 279 requests for data on Canadian Facebook users in the second half of 2014, up from 174 in the same period of 2013. That’s a more than 60-per-cent increase in requests.
At the same time, Facebook is complying with more of the requests. In the two years since the social site started reporting requests for data, the compliance rate in Canada has grown to 57 per cent in the latest reporting period, from 44 per cent in the first half of 2013.
“We respond to valid requests relating to criminal cases,” Facebook says. “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.”
The U.S. overshadows Canada for Facebook data requests, with 14,274 in the second half of 2014. On a per-capita basis, the U.S. sees more than five times as many requests as Canada.
And in the U.S., Facebook is more compliant, handing over data nearly 80 per cent of the time.
Worldwide, the social site saw a slight increase in the number of data requests, to 35,051 from 34,946 in the first half of the year.
Facebook has also seen an 11-per-cent increase in the amount of content taken down for violating local laws.
Of the 9,707 pieces of content the social site restricted in the second half of 2014, 5,832 were in India and 3,624 in Turkey, Reuters reports.
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