Verizon Fielded 150K User Data Requests This Year

The U.S. government made approximately 150,000 requests for Verizon customer information in the first half of 2014, the nation's largest mobile carrier reported on Tuesday.

From January until June, Verizon received 72,342 subpoenas, 37,327 court orders, and 14,977 warrants from federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, the company said in its latest transparency report. Verizon also received 24,257 emergency requests and between 0 and 999 National Security Letters from the FBI in the first half of 2014.

Verizon said the 'vast majority' of the requests it received related to consumer customers. The company got 'very few' demands regarding its enterprise customers.

'We do not release customer information unless authorized by law, such as a valid law enforcement demand or an appropriate request in an emergency involving the danger of death or serious physical injury,' the report notes.

In the first half of the year, Verizon rejected approximately 3 percent of the subpoenas and approximately 4.5 percent of court orders and warrants it received.

Subpoenas are generally used to obtain subscriber information, such as the name and address of a customer, or other data that appears on a subscriber's phone bill. Of the court orders it received, approximately 4,000 required Verizon to provide law enforcement access to data in real-time, such as access to phone numbers as they are dialed.

'Far less frequently, we are required to assist with wiretaps, where law enforcement accesses the content of a communication as it is taking place,' Verizon said. 'We received 714 wiretap orders in the first six months of this year.'

Verizon also said it provides the content of communications to law enforcement 'relatively infrequently.' Approximately two-thirds of the warrants it received in the first half of the year sought location information, stored content such as text messages and emails, or both.