Over the first half of 2014, Verizon received approximately 150,000 requests for customer information from federal, state and local law enforcement in the United States.
In Verizon’s transparency report covering the timeframe from January 1 to June 31, Verizon said the information was only released in the event of a valid law enforcement demand or an appropriate request in an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury.
Additionally, Verizon said in the report that the majority of the request relate to its consumer customers, while relatively few demands related to enterprise customers.
Verizon received considerably less order, warrants and subpoenas compared to the the first half of last year. In the first half of 2013, the carrier recieved 160,773 requests.
At present the government requires that carriers delay the report of any orders issued under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for six months. Thus, at present, the most recent FISA information Verizon can report is for the second half of 2013.
From July 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013, Verizon received between 0 and 999 FISA orders for content-an order that compels Verizon to give the government the content of certain communications carried on Verizon’s networks. Those orders targeted between 3000 and 3999 “customer selectors” used to identify a Verizon customer.
From July 1, 2013 through December 31, 2013, Verizon received between 0 and 999 reportable FISA orders for non-content–an order that compels Verizon to produce call detail records or similar “transactional” information about communications carried on Verizon’s networks, but does not require Verizon to produce any content.
Filed Under: Industry regulations
