A new analysis from Surfshark has shed light on major tech companies cooperating with government requests for user data around the world. Interestingly, Apple complied the most with such requests, cumulatively fulfilling them 82% of the time between 2013 and 2021.
The report focuses on governments’ user data requests globally in addition to compliance among Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft. The number of global requests topped 6.5 million in total from 2013 to 2021, with over 1.6 million requests in 2021 alone. Nearly 2.5 million requests were single-handedly filed by the US government, representing 37% of total requests. Overall, the US and Europe dominated the list of user accounts requested per 100,000 population, with six European countries out of top eight in the list.
The report paints an interesting double-sided picture regarding Apple’s position. Firstly, accounts registered with Apple only represented 416,000 of the total 6.5 million requests – just around 6%. On the other hand, Apple’s total compliance to hand over data steadily grew from 76% in 2016 to 82% in 2021, with the company complying 86% of the time in 2021 alone. This means that out of 416,000 requests, the company gave over data to over 330,000 accounts. 57% of Apple-complied requests came from US authorities.
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Google was the second most compliant behind Apple. Since 2016, Google’s compliance rate has been steadily increasing by 3% annually, standing at 77% in 2021. Meta’s disclosure rate stood at 72% in 2021 after peaking at 75% in 2017. Meta had the most number of requests overall, with 2.8 million requests out of a total 6.5 million. Microsoft’s rate has been steadily declining over the years and, becoming the least compliant company since 2018. Its compliance rate stood at 55% in 2021.
Apple’s Transparency Report maintains that the company is “committed to your privacy and being transparent about government requests for customer data globally.” The website maintains a list of requests by government and data type from 2013 to 2021. It further includes an “Account Requests” page that breaks down requests by date, country, percentage compliance, and content provided.
