Facebook: Governments Are Asking for More User Data

Social media giant Facebook says it is getting more and more requests for users' personal data from governments around the world, NBC News reports.

Government requests for account data jumped 18 percent in the first half of 2015 over the same period last year, rising from 35,051 requests to 41,214, Facebook said Wednesday.

The U.S. led the way, according to the data, with nearly 18,000 requests from law enforcement — and Facebook said it handed over some data in about 80 percent of the cases.

"We scrutinize each request we receive for legal sufficiency, whether from an authority in the U.S., Europe, or elsewhere," Chris Sonderby, Facebook deputy general counsel, said in a blog post.

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