Global Government Requests for Facebook User Data Rise 9% for Second Half of 2016

"About half of the data requests we received from law enforcement in the US contained a non-disclosure order that prohibited us from notifying the user." Content restrictions for violating local law declined to 6,944 globally, a 28 percent drop compared with the first half of 2016, he said. Its two prior reports (see 1612210046 and 1604280039), he said, showed more restrictions due to a single image from a 2015 terrorist attack in Paris. Sonderby said Facebook applies a "rigorous approach" to government requests and it never provides "back doors" or direct access to user data. He said the New York State Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, rejected the company's challenge to nearly 400 search warrants seeking to access user accounts for a fraud investigation (see 1701170015). "While the court in New York recognized that our case raised 'novel and important substantive issues,' it found that the lower court’s order denying our challenge was 'nonappealable,' and declined to review it further," said Sonderby without naming the courts. He also said the "slow and cumbersome" process to handle cross-border requests for data needs to be changed.