Global governments have asked Facebook for key information concerning nearly 38,000 users of the social media site.
According to the BBC, 74 countries asked for Facebook's Global Government Requests Report on Tuesday-a file that provides information on user activity for the first six months of 2013.
"We hope this report will be useful to our users in the ongoing debate about the proper standards for government requests for user information in official investigations," Facebook's lawyer Colin Stretch wrote in a statement. "And while we view this compilation as an important first report-it will not be our last. We will continue to be aggressive advocates for greater disclosure."
The United States asked for the most information, requesting details on 20,000 to 21,000 citizens on the site.
By comparison, the UK asked Facebook for data on 2,337 users, the BBC reported.
Facebook's legal side stressed that this was an act of compliance with the government, and that they weren't trying to hide anything.
"In coming reports, we hope to be able to provide even more information about the requests we receive from law enforcement authorites," Stretch said.
This is the first time the social media site has released such information, but the company has stated that they hope to give out similar reports biannually.
Facebook released a list that breaks down each country's total requests, the number of accounts they asked for and the percentage of requests where data was given.
According to that list, Facebook complied with the United States 79 percent of the time.
By contrast, no requests from the Egyptian government were complied with. In Turkey, only about half of the requests were complied with-the company maintained that this was due to fear of "child endangerment and emergency law enforcement," for a few cases.
The BBC stated that this lack of compliance might have to do with current unrest in the respective nations.
But for Privacy International, an advocacy group against unlawful surveillance, Facebook's release is part of a larger, much more "terrifying reality."
"...We are left with a disturbingly hollow feeling regarding Facebook's gesture, and it has little to do with Facebook itself," Privacy International wrote on their site. "...the veil has been lifted on what information governments actually collect about us. We are now aware of a terrifying reality-that governments don't necessarily need intermediaries like Facebook, Google and Microsoft to get our data."
