A recent report from Facebook reveals that Government requests for account data increased by 9% globally in the second half of 2016, when compared to the first six months, from 59,229 to 64,279 requests.

Romania’s Government made a total of 54 requests in 2016, asking information about the personal data of more than 100 accounts or users.

In the first half of the year (January-June 2016), the Romanian Government made 25 requests, with two of them being urgent. The number of requests increased to 29 in the second half, with only one being an emergency.

The requests targeted a total of 118 users/accounts, with most of them being registered in the second half of 2016 – 81. In the first six months, Facebook provided some data in 48% of the cases, the percentage increasing to over 58% in the second half.

Data from local social network monitoring service Facebrands.ro revealed earlier this year that the number of Facebook accounts in Romania reached 9.6 million in January 2017, up by 16% compared to January 2016, when there were 8.3 million accounts. Romania’s capital Bucharest has the highest number of Facebook users in Romania, namely 1.76 million of the 9.26 million who have made public the city they live in.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com