Government requests data from Facebook on 6 accounts

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government had requested information on six Facebook user accounts in the first half of 2015, the social media giant revealed on Thursday.

In its bi-annual government requests report, Facebook said the Philippine government made a total of five data requests involving six accounts from January to June 2015.

It said some data were produced in four out of five, or 80 percent, of the requests.

Details about the data requests and the information produced by the social media company were not released.

“We are releasing our Global Government Requests Report as part of a broader effort to reform government surveillance in countries around the world by providing more transparency,” Facebook deputy general counsel Chris Sonderby said in a statement.

Sonderby stressed that Facebook does not provide any government with “back doors” or direct access to people’s data.

“We scrutinize each request we receive for legal sufficiency, whether from an authority in the US, Europe or elsewhere. If a request appears to be deficient or overly broad, we push back hard and will fight in court, if necessary,” he said.

“To protect people’s information, we will continue to apply a rigorous approach to every government request we receive. We’ll also keep working with partners in the industry and civil society to push governments around the world to reform surveillance in a way that protects their citizens’ safety and security while respecting their rights and freedoms,” he added.

Facebook said government officials sometimes make requests for data about people who sue the social media site.

“The vast majority of these requests relate to criminal cases, such as robberies or kidnappings. In many of these cases, these government requests seek basic subscriber information, such as name, registration date and length of service,” said the company.

“Other requests may also seek IP address logs or account content,” it added.

While global data requests from governments have collectively increased, the number of data requests from the Philippines has actually declined.

The Philippines made six requests involving 28 user accounts from January to June 2014, and seven request involving 27 user accounts from July to December 2014.

Not all of the requests during the said periods have been granted, the report showed.