“In the case of Singapore, the Singapore authorities have made a total of 107 data requests to Facebook for 117 Singapore-based Facebook accounts in the first half of 2013. Facebook indicated that it only acceded to 70% of the requests from the Singapore authorities by releasing some user data.” [Link]
So where did these 107 data requests came from and why?
From the list published in Facebook, Singapore’s requests seem to be more than that of Australia, a democratic country which has strong privacy laws for individuals and 5 times the population with more crimes per capita in the percentage of requests where some data was given.
The nature of the statistics show unusually high numbers. A quick look on Singapore facebook pages show they were mostly used for political and news commentary.
Firstly, there have been no hundreds of cases of crimes or illegal activities committed through Facebook reported in Singapore press nor Facebook has been known to be used as a common platform to break laws in Singapore or hold any large numbers of radical websites bordering around race, religion or terrorism.
In its Terms of Service, Facebook did say:
Responding to legal requests and preventing harm
We may access, preserve and share your information in response to a legal request (like a search warrant, court order or subpoena) if we have a good faith belief that the law requires us to do so. This may include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards.
We may also access, preserve and share information when we have a good faith belief it is necessary to detect, prevent and address fraud and other illegal activity; to protect ourselves, you and others, including as part of investigations and to prevent death or imminent bodily harm.
Facebook may have compromised on the privacy of hundreds of Singapore users. It is not clear how Facebook decides based on internationally recognized standards and it certainly seems that they adhere to the mandatory laws of jurisdictions in that country .
Representatives at facebook need to understand that Singapore does not have any privacy act for individuals on a personal basis etched in legislation or constitution in the first place.
Singapore only recently has a personal data protection bill that is designed to safeguard an individual’s personal data against misuse by businesses for monetary gains.
It is easy for Facebook or any large organization handling user privacy to get away with liability in Singapore as users are not protected under a privacy act.
And not withstanding above, it is possible that Facebook in many countries may have come across Intelligence agencies who may such requests under a fake facade. Intelligence agencies like all other national security agencies work in a covert way and their organization protocols can allow any part of their undercover employees to pose as anyone or anybody with the relevant IDs and cards, documents in the name of national security measures or to do anything they deem fit to achieving their goals. More often than not, state intelligence agencies are always shrouded in secrecy and with powers that go beyond that of legal or judicial process that may undermine their operations, especially in countries that have laws that state detention without trial.
This a fact of many state security and intelligence agencies all over the world and information about their workings is found in the public domain and that they specifically target individuals which have a high profile i.e, someone of calibre or value. This means that Facebook may not know who actually makes those requests for “purposes of law enforcement” and there seems to be Facebook has no easy or hard methods to verify if an intelligence agency masquerading as a state or local enforcement agency or court is making those requests since Facebook is not an Intelligence agency and may be unaware of the workings of the intelligence field.
Facebook may have possibly compromised on the privacy of hundreds political commentators if it releases phone Numbers, Ip addresses and other user data to “entities” that have a specific agenda in mind.
Freepress