With Pinterest’s new funding round behind it, the popular image-bookmarking site is continuing to make strides in the Internet space as the de facto digital pinboard site. Stepping in line with other online services like Dropbox and Twitter, Pinterest released its first full-year transparency report to the public.
In 2014, the requests the site received for user data totaled 41, with most requests from the United States. There were 39 requests for information about 54 accounts in the U.S., and one request each from Canada and Australia, seven warrants, five subpoenas and one civil subpoena.
"Our policy is to give notice to users whose information has been requested unless prohibited by law (e.g., by protective order or applicable statute -- see guidelines for more info," explains Pinterest in its report. "Of the 39 U.S. law enforcement requests we received, we were prohibited by law from notifying the user 16 times. None of the three civil requests we received prohibited us from notifying the user."
The virtual bulletin board site's transparency report mirrors that of Reddit, which received 55 government requests for user information in 2014. Pinterest produced information required by the government and those asking, claiming it was mostly "straightforward and routine," but the Cold Brew Labs-funded company did deny nine requests it deemed objectionable.
Twitter, on the other hand, received 2,871 requests covering 7,144 user accounts, so in comparison Pinterest’s requests are considered relatively low. Pinterest’s numbers are only likely to grow over the years as the pin-sharing site wrangles more users and becomes a larger force within the social media climate.
Photo: MKH Marketing | Flickr
