US law enforcement biggest recipient of Microsoft customer data
Following the lead set by Google and Twitter, Microsoft has published its first transparency report, tabulating the number of requests for customer data made by law enforcement around the world, the number of responses given, and what kind of information was included in those responses.
Microsoft responds to requests for data in 46 countries, those where it says it can properly verify the legitimacy of the requests. In 2012, a total of 70,665 requests were made. The country making the most demands for data was Turkey, with 11,434. The US was in second place, with 11,073. Each request could concern multiple users, with a total of 122,015 users covered by requests.
When it comes to the number of requests that returned customer data, however, the US was the clear leader. Of 1,558 requests that resulted in disclosure of some customer content, such as the subject or body of an e-mail or a photograph on SkyDrive, 1,544 were made in the US. The other 14 were split between Brazil (7), Canada (1), Ireland (5), and New Zealand (1).
