Facebook General Counsel Ted Ullyot said in a statement on Friday, that FB has received 9000-10000 data requests from all government entities in the U.S. The total number of Facebook user accounts for which data was requested was between 18,000-19,000 accounts.
According to the company, the requests covered issues like a local sheriff trying to find a missing child, to a federal marshal tracking a fugitive, to a police department investigating an assault, to a national security official investigating a terrorist threat.
According to Mr. Ted said, ” We will continue to be vigilant in protecting our users’ data from unwarranted government requests, and we will continue to push all governments to be as transparent as possible.”
“We frequently reject such requests outright, or require the government to substantially scale down its requests, or simply give the government much less data than it has requested. And we respond only as required by law,” he added.
Facebook has been fighting public outrage after a government contractor revealed it was among nine Internet giants that turned over user data to the secret National Security Agency surveillance program PRISM.
The companies, which also include Apple, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, have denied claims the NSA could directly access their servers. US authorities have said the program helped prevent terror attacks.
