[Report] LinkedIn Transperency for July - December 2013

Almost every social media website is releasing its transparency report in order to give users a better understanding of the entire process and to authenticate themselves against plagiarism and other similar activities.

Here is the gist of the report issued by LinkedIn, for the second half of 2013 (July to December 2013). They have been releasing the reports on a biannual basis.

LinkedIn promises its users a secure release of necessary data only after carefully sifting through the data and not breaching their boundaries. Unless under legal prohibition, they also let the members know before releasing the documents.

Statistical  Data

• No. of government requests received : 72
• No. of accounts : 110
• Govt Requests by India: 2
• Total No. of LinkedIn Users : 277 million

Here are is detailed table of transparency report

Type of government requests

Government requests for Member Data include all requests from the U.S. government except for national security-related requests. The court clerk issues subpoenas, for general matters and search warrants are those issued by the judge himself.

Court warrants were majorly issued under “ECPA (Electronics Communication Privacy Act), which extends the government’s permission to tap electronically transmitted data.

Though law suits were filed by LinkedIn and many other firms seeking for transparency into a number of national security related requests, the “New Capability Order” issued on January 27, 2014 by the government, resulted in the withdrawal of the same.

LinkedIn showed its staunch support for the government's obligation to protect the safety of citizens despite filing the lawsuit. The users' information security and accessibility remains its prime concern.

With big names like Apple, Google, Twitter etc. releasing their transparency reports, it has gotten a newfangled outlook. However, the real question is, are the transparency reports fulfilling their purpose with fancy clever witted statements released by each company? Time will tell us.