Portuguese authorities launched 177 requests for information about 213 Facebook users during the first half of the year, according to a report released by the social network.
It added that 42% of the requests were accepted by Facebook.
Portugal is included in a list of 70 countries that also made similar appeals, topped by the USA, which conducted 11,500 information requests concerning 20,000 users, and the UK, which sent out 3,245 queries about 4,144 users.
The widely-popular social network has continuously stressed that it respects its users’ privacy, conceding only that the information requested by the government is according to the law.
Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, said that ensuring the population’s safety can be done transparently.
“As we have made clear in recent weeks, we have stringent processes in place to handle all government data requests. We believe this process protects the data of the people who use our service, and requires governments to meet a very high legal bar with each individual request in order to receive any information about any of our users,” Stretch stated in a press release.
