The European Union’s civil liberties committee held a hearing on monday, primarily discussing the recent bout of online surveillance done by the United States. In it’s questioning, however, they unintentionally stumbled onto an unusual accusation of their own policies.

‘Richard Allan, the director for public policy for Facebook in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, said Facebook received 8,500 requests from the European Union affecting 10,000 user accounts during the first six months of this year.’

Britain, Germany, Italy and France were the key countries that sent the most requests, at just over 1,500-2,000 each.

“What’s interesting, and what’s missing from the puzzle at the moment,” Mr. Allan said at the hearing, is “how little information governments publish on their own requests.”

Facebook doesn’t charge for Government access to data, but Allan had expressed interests in the idea, suggesting that adding a price point may create the necessary friction to reduce overall demand of private data.

via nytimes