The US government is trying very hard to gain access to an iPhone used by San Bernardino shooter Farook Syed, but tech giant Apple is not budging. Due to Apple’s privacy policy, the FBI does not have access to Farook’s iPhone because they do not know the password, and the company is refusing to create software to hack it.
The current situation once again brings the question of government access into the limelight.
Of course, governments are known for their prying eyes, and this is not the first controversial case of attempted privacy violation by authorities.
Facebook is one of many companies which publishes regular reports of government requests for information. So which Middle East countries are the most notorious for asking Facebook for its citizens data? Take a look below.
Turkey:
Number of requests: 368 Percentage granted: 87.5% Pieces of content restricted: 4,496
Facebook's explanation for restricting content: “The majority of the content was restricted under local law 5651, which covers a range of offenses including personal rights violations, personal privacy, and defamation of Ataturk.”
Israel:
Number of requests: 174 Percentage granted: 63.22% Pieces of content restricted: 195
Facebook's explanation for restricting content: “We restricted access to content in Israel related to Holocaust denial, which is prohibited by local law.”
Jordan:
Number of requests: 7 Percentage granted: 14.29% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
Kuwait:
Number of requests: 3 Percentage granted: 33.3% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
UAE:
Number of requests: 2 Percentage granted*:0% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
Egypt:
Number of requests: 2 Percentage granted: 0% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
Lebanon:
Number of requests: 2 Percentage granted: 0% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
Qatar:
Number of requests: 1 Percentage granted: 0% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
Iraq:
Number of requests: 1 Percentage granted: 100% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
Reports from January 2015 - July 2015. Some reports on Middle East countries do not yet include information from 2015, and have therefore been excluded from the list.
*Percentage granted is defined as “the percentage of requests in which we disclosed at least some data.”
Number of requests: 17,577 Percentage granted: 79.85% Pieces of content restricted: n/a
