Yahoo recently released numbers of how often the U.S government made requests for data access, becoming the last in a long line of big tech companies to give up the information. The results are illuminating, and in many cases, frightening. Although there’s always been a suspicion, the data released confirms that nearly 80% of all data you transmit through big tech companies is sent and stored by the NSA and US gov’t.

The raw numbers released were as follows:

Yahoo: 12,444 requests affecting 40,322 accounts, 91 percent of requests granted
Facebook: 11,000 – 12,000 requests affecting 20,000 – 21,000 accounts, 79 percent of requests granted
Google*: 8,438 requests affecting 14,791 accounts, 88 percent of requests granted
Apple*: Between 4,000 and 5,000 requests affecting 9,000 to 10,000 accounts
Microsoft*: Between 6,000 and 7,000 requests affecting between 31,000 and 32,000 accounts

Interestingly, despite taking the heat of the scandal, Facebook has curbed to far less requests than other “gooder” counterparts in Google and Yahoo. Over 80% of requests, many deemed unconstitutional, made by the NSA have been responded to. Although it’s been assumed that the requests are made in criminal cases, recent allegation suggest a lot of the requests are made pedestrian for innocent civilians.

via bizjournals