Government Surveillance Report

As a data request can cover multiple accounts, the research looks into the number of accounts specified in these requests, examines their global distribution per population, and compares the number of partially or fully disclosed requests. On the other end of the scale, Apple covered the fewest requested accounts - 340K - or just 7% of total accounts of interest to authorities. The US tops the list with nearly 2M accounts in user data requests since 2013. The study identifies 177 different countries that have requested user data from these companies between 2013 and 2020. User data requests include two types of metrics - the number of requests a company received from authorities and the number of accounts specified within them. The collected data was aggregated and analyzed according to five major categories: user data requests received, partially or fully disclosed requests, percentages of disclosed requests, accounts specified within these requests, and requested accounts per 100,000 people in each country.