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The world’s 10 most aggressive snoops, according to Apple

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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November 7, 2013, 6:49 AM ET

Click to enlarge.

FORTUNE — Google (GOOG) may be complaining the loudest (and in the foulest language) about the National Security Agency’s domestic spying activities, but it’s Apple (AAPL) that provided the most data — in the form of two large and surprisingly revealing spreadsheets (see below).

One shows the number of device information requests made to Apple by police around the world (typically to recover lost or stolen iPhones). The other shows the more controversial requests for account information — names, addresses etc.

As Apple explained in the report it issued Tuesday, the U.S. severely restricted what could be revealed about its account requests:

“The U.S. government has given us permission to share only a limited amount of information about these orders, with the requirement that we combine national security orders with account-based law enforcement requests and report only a consolidated range in increments of 1000.”

For the attached charts, which show orders per capita for the 10 countries that issued the most requests, we used the mid-points of the U.S. government’s ranges (i.e., 2,000-3,000 became 2,500).

The countries in top chart could be thought of as the 10 nations with either the most petty thievery or the most vigilant police forces — with Singapore on top.

The bottom chart shows the 10 most aggressive data snoops, led by the U.S.

Below: Apple’s spreadsheets.

LINK: Report on Government Information Requests, November 5, 2013.

About the Author
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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