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The Irish government is asking for more and more user data from Facebook

The growth in requests is more than double the global average.

FACEBOOK RECEIVED 54 data requests from the Irish government during the first six months of 2014, 20 more requests than during the same period last year.

As part of its third global government requests report, Facebook says that requests from the Irish government are growing by more than twice the global average.

The 54 Irish requests related to 50 different users and Facebook says it provided information in just over three in five of these cases. These requests relate mainly to criminal cases and Facebook says it responds only to requests they consider are “valid”.

Globally, Facebook says there were 34,946 requests for data in the first six months of this year, an increase of 24% on last year.

The comparative increase in Ireland is 59%, while in the UK requests grew by precisely the global average at 24%.

PastedImage-84907 Facebook Facebook

In a blog post accompanying the report, one of Facebook’s senior lawyers Chris Sonderby stresses that the social media giant strives for governments to ensure that data requests are both legally valid and specific.

“As we’ve said before, we scrutinise every government request we receive for legal sufficiency under our terms and the strict letter of the law, and push back hard when we find deficiencies or are served with overly broad requests,” he wrote.

“While we recognise that governments need to take action to protect their citizens’ safety and security, we believe all government data requests must be narrowly tailored, proportionate to the case in review, and subject to strict judicial oversight,” he added.

The global government requests report shows that there were 15,433 requests for information in the United States and that Facebook complied with over 80% of these requests.

Read: Facebook received 34 data requests from Irish government >

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43 Comments
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    Mute Cpm
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:41 AM

    OK, well one rumour I heard, was that The Journal is obsessed, to the point of ridiculousness, with the iPhone.

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    Mute Tommy
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:22 AM

    Jesus this is going to be one long day waiting….. I pray for a redesigned handset – come on Apple! Where on the net can the unveiling be watched live?

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    Mute angryzes
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:34 AM
    11
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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:39 AM

    Hi Tommy,
    Apple doesn’t always stream its events live, but is likely to post a video of the presentation on its YouTube channel later: http://www.youtube.com/user/Apple
    Otherwise, people who are attending are bound to liveblog it if you want to follow the announcement as it happens. Engadget has its one ready to go here: http://engt.co/poVPms

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    Mute Mark McNulty
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    Oct 4th 2011, 12:18 PM

    Wish they would fix battery life and phone reception. Both are awful.

    17
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    Mute neuromancer
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:41 AM

    I hate my white iPhone.

    16
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    Mute Erica Cuthbertson
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    Oct 4th 2011, 6:58 PM

    Racist…

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    Mute Richard Evesson
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    Oct 4th 2011, 1:21 PM

    Isn’t it amazing how we’ve all become so obsessed with something as trivial as a phone !! But god damn you apple it’s a pretty cool phone at that

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    Mute Eddie Barrett
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:21 AM

    Susan
    Is there some reason why this article is appearing TWICE on my iPhone 4 ?
    - Eddie

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:32 AM

    Eddie, not sure what the problem is, it looks fine in here. I’ll check with tech.

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    Mute Eddie Barrett
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:39 AM

    What are the negatives for ? – the article is still appearing in duplicate on my iPhone – is mine the only one ?

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    Mute Brian Kelleher
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    Oct 4th 2011, 4:07 PM

    Looking fine on my Samsung Galaxy Ace :P

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    Mute Inda Kenny
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    Oct 4th 2011, 5:39 PM

    A bit of a humble brag there Eddie.

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    Mute Cpm
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    Oct 4th 2011, 12:14 PM

    I’m the same – had two iPhones, finally got sick of the company and their products so I switched to Android/Samsung, and within a day or two I knew I wouldn’t touch an iPhone again.

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    Mute jimmyobrien
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:55 AM

    this is some marketing by Apple, its unreal the way they can get free advertising and marketing with nearly every single news/media outlet having some item on this in the last few days.

    Personally i had one for a while and i thought it was only ok, have a samsung android phone now and its so much better in many ways, expect it hasn’t got the cool factor.

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    Mute Danny D
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    Oct 4th 2011, 9:37 AM

    Picture says “The white iPhone 4 goes on sale in New York last year”. White iphone was not released until April of this year…

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    Mute Danny D
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    Oct 4th 2011, 12:38 PM

    Thanks for correcting this BTW :)

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    Mute Craig Harris
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    Oct 4th 2011, 10:52 AM

    The Iphone 4 was a terrible looking phone! I really do hope they do a complete redesign as i have been holding onto my beautiful 3GS for some time now. If they do release a 4S then im heading over to the ocmpetion as i can’t be bothered to wait another 8-9 months for a iphone 5! Come on Apple surprise us all and give us something fresh and new.

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    Mute Adam Beere
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:20 AM

    The iPhone 3GS was the farthest thing from Apple’s familiar industrial design, the cheap plastic back felt just like something released by samsung. If you didn’t like the iPhone 4, I hope you enjoy android!

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    Mute Craig Harris
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    Oct 4th 2011, 4:09 PM

    Sorry but the 3Gs was a delicous looking phone who wants a crappy glass back that just gets scratched easily.

    The 4 looked bulky and had no sleak lines or curves. It looked like a skewed lego brick. Jonthan Ives needed a slap after designing the 4!

    A product designer i look upto has to wow us with something better than the dreay bulky looking 4.

    I won’t be going with Android as i have 3GS which does everything i need it to and it looks like a sexy phone. I’ll stick with that until they release a decent looking phone again.

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    Mute Blaine Ryan
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    Oct 4th 2011, 3:30 PM

    Think ill stick to my Galaxy S2!

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    Mute neuromancer
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    Oct 4th 2011, 11:52 AM

    Rumour or self-speculation.

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