Facebook. Governments increasingly access the data of Internet users – Express

It is not the first time that Facebook gets caught up in controversy due to the use that gives information that its users provide and publish. In May, the company was sued in a class action of 25 000 users who complained about the misuse of their personal data in a “massive surveillance” system. This week, the company found itself hindered by the Belgian courts to follow Web surfers without permission. Now it gets to know that the user requests information from social network for several countries governments have increased in the first half of 2015.

According to the biannual report published Wednesday by Mark Zuckerberg’s company, in early 2015 there was an increase of 18% of requests for information on the internet made by several States. Thus, the first half of 2015 the governments of multiple countries accessed the information contained in 41,124 accounts from Facebook, against 35 051 bills that had been passed in review at the end of last year.

The order of the governing teams focus mostly on basic information about the user, the IP address of the device to which it is associated or even the content contained on the page, like posts. According to the American giant, these requests are usually related to investigations of criminal cases.

The volume of applications of this kind comes mostly from the US Government, which is responsible for investigating 60% of the total these Facebook accounts, or have access to information published by 26,759 users. France, Germany and the UK follow up to the United States topped the list.

The concerns relating to violation of the privacy of Internet users have emerged especially after the former US spy Edward Snowden have revealed information on how as some of the Government’s surveillance programs worked.

At the end of October, the European Parliament adopted a resolution, which Snowden considered “extraordinary” in urging the United States to abandon any criminal charges against the former spy and to prevent their extraditação to the United States in recognition of their status as “international human rights defender.” The charges of espionage and theft of property is sufficient in Snowden 30 years in prison on US soil.