Report on Government Requests for User Data
The Surfshark research hub analyzed user data requests that Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft received from government agencies of 177 countries between 2013 and 2021. While most requests relate to criminal investigations, information may also be requested in the context of civil or administrative cases. As a data request can cover multiple accounts, the research examines the number of accounts specified in these requests, examines their global distribution per population, and compares the number of partially or fully disclosed requests.
Governments request more user data than ever. The number of accounts requested increased more than five times from 2013 to 2021, with 2021 seeing a year-over-year increase of around 25%.
The US and the EU authorities request data the most. Both account for around 60% of all accounts of interest from 2013 to 2021. To compare the two, the US requested more than double the accounts per 100K people than all the EU countries combined.
