India made the most requests among South Asian countries to big technology firms for user data, a report by a Netherlands-based firm has found.
The report was released by virtual private network service Surfshark on March 14. The report was based on data from transparency reports published by technology firms Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft.
The study said that while Amazon was also considered to be among the “big five” large technology firms, it was excluded from the report “due to the lack of and/or inconsistency in reporting user data disclosure practices”.
As per the report, India was ranked 36th in the world, with government agencies having requested for data on an average of 58.69 accounts per 1 lakh persons from 2013 to 2021. During this period, Indian authorities requested for data of about 8,23,333 accounts, according to the analysis by Surfshark.
Nepal made the second-highest number of such requests (11.30 accounts per 1 lakh population) among South Asian countries. The Himalayan country was ranked 59th on the list by Surfshark.
Pakistan was ranked 60th globally, with data being requested about an average of 11.09 accounts per 1 lakh people. Bangladesh ranked 76th across the world, with government agencies having asked for data on an average of 2.10 accounts per 1 lakh population.
The United States topped the list of such countries globally, with the government seeking data on 728.41 accounts per 1 lakh persons. Germany and Singapore were the next two countries on the list.
China was ranked at the 65th place in the list, with government agencies having asked for data on 6.68 accounts per 1 lakh population.
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