Facebook says that the country sought information about 38, 000 users in the first half of 2013

From Gerry Shi

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters)-the Government asks for information about more than 38 000 Facebook users in the first half of 2013 and the No. 1 social network in accordance with the highest number of requests, the company said in its first report on the extent of data queries that it gets from countries around the world.

The report follows allegations by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden that virtually all of the major Internet companies, including Facebook, Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp.--commonly conveys troves of data on potentially millions of users on the national intelligence agencies.

Facebook has more than 1 billion users worldwide.

Law enforcement authorities in the US were by far the most active in Facebook, seeking information about 20,000 to 21,000 people from January to June. This represents a slight increase from the six months from June to December 2012, when the u.s. Agency required information about roughly 18 000 to 19 000 Facebook accounts, according to data released by the company earlier.

Facebook has at least partially complied with about 80 percent of these requests, the company confirmed on Tuesday.

Authorities in other countries with a big Facebook user base, including India, the United Kingdom and Germany, also required information on thousands of users.

Facebook, which disclosed the information in its first "global government reporting requirements," said individually controlled all of the requests for information and requested the Government to meet and "very high legal bar" accept user data.

Although the full extent of the national security agency electronic data collection programmes remains unclear, Facebook energetically such claims that it allows unlimited access to the u.s. Government to secretly collect information about a significant fraction of its users.

Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch said in a Tuesday report that Facebook hoped to contribute to the ongoing debate about the proper standards for Government requests for user information in the official investigation. "

"We're fighting many of these applications, pushing back when we find that the legal flaws and a narrowing of the scope too broad or vague requirements," said stretch. "If we are required to comply with a particular request, we often share only basic information, such as your name."

Facebook said it would start to publish information on data requests at regular intervals. Google and Twitter, among other companies, have released similar information on a regular basis for several years.

Facebook's message contained secret information requests within the UNITED STATES, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Patriot Act. American companies are usually prohibited from recognises the existence of data applications under these statutes. Facebook negotiated with the u.s. Government in June to start publishing the data, the total number of requests that it receives, without specifying how many relate to investigations of law enforcement as opposed to intelligence efforts.

(Gerry Shih; editing by Andrew Hay)