New Delhi: The Indian government made 8.23 lakh requests for user data to big technology companies Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft between 2013 and 2021, the most in South Asia and seventh-highest in Asia, according to a report by Surfshark, a VPN provider.
For every 100,000 accounts, Indian authorities sought information on 58.7 social media accounts in the said period. Globally, India stood in the 36th position out of 137 countries on the number of requests made to technology companies for information on social media users.
Alarmingly, the requests by Indian authorities on the same rose by 1,476% between 2013 and 2021, nearly coinciding with the reign of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. In the span of one year, between 2020 and 2021, requests from the Indian side shot up by 55%.
Globally too, requests have skyrocketed in the same period. “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%,” Surfshark said.
Surfshark analysed the number of accounts specified in user data requests by the local authorities and law enforcement agencies. While the report notes that governments use data of social media users to detect and tackle crime, it also voiced concerns raised by civil society organisations that question the surveillance regime to “track down political rivals”.
According to the report, over the nine-year period, companies fully or partially disclosed data from around 2.5 million requests belonging to India. The overall disclosure rate in India is 55.3%. Meta and Google received the highest number of account requests from authorities in India, the report noted.
China, on the other hand, secured 65th rank globally and sought information of 6.7 accounts per 100,000. Nepal was ranked 59th and requested information on 11 accounts per 100,000. The United States and European Union countries topped the list by making the most number of requests. For every 100,000 social media accounts, the US sought information on 728.41 accounts. While mostly it was the European countries, which figured in the top 30 list, Singapore and Taiwan stood out as the only exceptions, by emerging third and tenth on the list respectively.
Source: Surfshark.
In terms of companies, Apple complied with 82% of user data requests, the highest among all the four companies. It was followed by Meta (72%), Google (71%), and Microsoft (68%). Amazon was excluded from the analysis due to the lack of and/or inconsistency in reporting user data disclosure practices, according to Surfshark.
“Between 2013-2021, Meta hosted the most accounts that interested authorities among all four companies (2.8 million) – or two out of five accounts requested during this time (6.6 million). On the other end of the scale, Apple held the fewest requested accounts – 416,000 – or just 6% of total accounts of interest to authorities,” the report says.
Officials at Surfshark said authorities around the world are devising new methods to monitor the digital world. “Besides requesting data from technology companies, authorities are now exploring more ways to monitor and tackle crime through online services. For instance, the EU is considering a regulation that would require internet service providers to detect, report, and remove abuse-related content,” said Gabriele Kaveckyte, privacy counsel at Surfshark, according to the Hindu BusinessLine.
Kaveckyte also noted the concerns raised by civil society organisations. “On the one hand, introducing such measures could help solve serious criminal cases, but civil society organisations expressed their concern over encouraging surveillance techniques which may later be used, for example, to track down political rivals,” she added.
