Government requests to LinkedIn on the rise

LinkedIn has said that half of one 10,000th of a percent of its members had government requests for their data in the first six months of 2013, but the number of requests went up from 48 to 83 from the second half of 2012 to the first half of 2013.

LinkedIn's transparency report, released earlier this week, revealed that there had been a total of 83 requests for user data for 97 accounts from nine countries.

The United States topped the list, which LinkedIn said reflects the fact that the career website's headquarters are located in California. LinkedIn's practice is to notify the member before their data is handed over, unless it is prevented from doing so by the law or in emergency situations.

The US made 70 of the 83 requests, seeking access to 84 accounts, and 57 percent of those were approved by LinkedIn. The majority (88 percent) came via subpoenas. The UK made 4 requests to 4 accounts, with a 0 percent success rate. Spain and Germany both had two requests to two accounts each, neither of which were approved.

Australia made one request for access to one user account, which was rejected by LinkedIn.