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Now the government is requesting user data from Snapchat

Snapchat revealed the data as part of its first transparency report.

SNAPCHAT HAS JOINED the likes of Apple, Facebook, Google and Twitter by releasing its first ever transparency report.

Between 1st November 2014 and 28th February 2015, the Irish government made two requests for data from the app, both of which required specific account identifiers like usernames, email addresses, and phone numbers.

Neither of those requests resulted in any data being produced, and no emergency requests were made during this period.

In the US, 375 requests made in total with 92% resulting in some data being produced. For the rest of the world, only 28 requests were made with 21% of requests being granted in some form.

Snapchat transparency report Snapchat Snapchat

The company plans to publish bi-annual transparency reports in future with the first one happening in July 2015.

Snapchat has been criticised for both its privacy and security measures in the past, but it has made efforts to clean up its image such as releasing guidelines for parents and teens.

The company is also cracking down on third-party apps gaining access to its service. Snapchat never made its API public, but that didn’t stop third-party developers accessing it and creating their own apps using its functionality. This led to some security issues occurring such as hundreds of thousands of saved Snapchat photos being accessed and published online.

While it’s stated any app that claims to offer Snapchat services can’t be trusted, the company believes it has enough measures in place to block all access from third-party apps.

Read: The government is making fewer Facebook data requests, but more are being granted >

Read: This mechanical exoskeleton could help take the effort out of walking >

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