From the period of January to June this year, Verizon has fielded at least 150,000 requests for user data from various United States law enforcement agencies.
The agencies vary from local to state to federal. The telecom reported the figure Tuesday.
According to reports, in the first half of the 2014 calendar year, Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, received 72,342 subpoenas, 37,327 court orders, and 14,977 warrants from these law enforcement agencies in the U.S. The release of this data was part of the company's transparency report.
The company also received more than 24,000 emergency requests. Because of reporting requirements, Verizon could only disclose that they received between 0 and 999 requests from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Verizon reported the majority were requests for their consumer customers, but not many for their 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 company stated.
As one report pointed out, insight into the data is nearly impossible because of reporting laws. Last year, in total, Verizon had 321,545 requests. Verizon said its reporting was even better this year, but that is difficult to judge.
Another report noted Verizon's first half saw a decline in requests over last year's first half.
Verizon and other ISPs have faced scrutiny and outrage after NSA activities were leaked by former security contractor Edward Snowden, who sought asylum after his divulgence. WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange also provided fuel for that fire.
"Verizon commonly pushes back against legal demands, forcing law enforcement agencies to narrow the scope of their requests, correct errors in their demands, or issue a different form of legal process before we will produce a specific type of data," Verizon stated.
The company also received requests from foreign countries' law enforcement agencies, such as in France and Germany, though not nearly as many as it has gotten in the United States.
Germany ended its relationship with the company over spying activities on part of the U.S. government. The data presented by Verizon may suggest that the government relies more on data from cell phone carriers than from Internet sources.
Verizon publicly spoke out on bulk data collection, issuing in May its support of the USA Freedom Act. The bill aims at curbing the collection of American data and increasing transparency in surveillance warrants.
However, groups like the Reform Government Surveillance coalition oppose the bill because it doesn't go far enough to protect privacy. Companies in that coalition include Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple.
