Should EU Governments Be More Transparent, Flexible When Requesting Facebook User Data?
Facebook received about 8,500 requests for user data from governments of countries in the European Union during the first six months of 2013, involving some 10,000 accounts, Richard Allan, the social network’s director for public policy in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said at a hearing organized by the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, offering more details on the data released by the company in August.
Facebook received about 8,500 requests for user data from governments of countries in the European Union during the first six months of 2013, involving some 10,000 accounts, Richard Allan, the social network’s director for public policy in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, said at a hearing organized by the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee, offering more details on the data released by the company in August.
The New York Times’ Bits blog reported that Allan urged EU governments to be more transparent and flexible when it comes to requests for user data related to national security, saying:
What’s interesting, and what’s missing from the puzzle at the moment, (is) how little information governments publish on their own requests.
(For) any citizen to have a complete picture and know who’s telling the truth, (the authorities making the requests also need) to say how many requests they’ve made in our name.
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