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Microsoft received more than 1,800 customer data requests from Australian and New Zealand law enforcement bodies in 2019, according to the company’s latest Law Enforcement Requests Report.
The latest report reveals that Microsoft received a total number of 898 requests from Australian law enforcement bodies in the final six months of the year, with 1,060 accounts or users specified in the requests.
As previously reported, in the six months to the end of June last year, the company received 887 requests about 1,118 accounts or users from local enforcement authorities, bringing the Australian total for the year to 1,785.
At the same time, the company received 21 data requests from New Zealand law enforcement entities during the final six months of 2019, with those requests relating to 33 accounts or users.
During the prior six months, the company received nine requests about 17 accounts or users from New Zealand law enforcement bodies, bringing the annual 2019 total up to 30.
Altogether, the number of requests for Microsoft user data from Australian and New Zealand law enforcement bodies last year came to 1,815 for the 12 months.
Microsoft publishes the number of legal demands for customer data it receives from law enforcement agencies around the world twice a year.
It should be noted that the reports only cover law enforcement requests, although Microsoft follows the same principles for responding to government requests for all customer data.
The company’s latest figures show that during the second half of 2019, Microsoft received a total number of 21,781 legal requests related to its consumer services from law enforcement agencies around the world.
According to Microsoft, that number represented a decrease from the previous six-month period total of 24,175 legal requests.
A majority of the law enforcement requests Microsoft received during the period continued to come from a handful of countries, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, the company said.
Meanwhile, the second half of 2019 saw Microsoft receive 83 requests from law enforcement around the world for data associated with enterprise cloud customers, which is defined as customers who purchased more than 50 seats.
The company said that in 33 cases, these requests were rejected, withdrawn or law enforcement was successfully redirected to the customer to obtain the information they were seeking.
However, in 50 cases, Microsoft was compelled to provide some information in response to the order, with 27 cases requiring the disclosure of some customer content and 23 of the cases compelling the company to disclose non-content information only.
