The UK intelligence agencies have made 1,268 requests seeking information on private communications via Microsoft products including Skype in 2012, accounting for a quarter of all requests received by the internet calling service from global governments.
During the period, the requests from agencies including British police and intelligence agencies, such as GCHQ, have surpassed requests made by those US agencies, according to Guardian.
The agencies sought for information including the names of callers, their address, details of email account and dialled telephone numbers.
In 2012, the US made 1,154 requests, while intelligence agencies of Germany and France were among the heaviest users of backdoor access to Skype data by seeking 686 and 402 requests, together with Taiwan.
Overall, the US software major received over 75,000 snooping orders in 2012, which had impact on 137,000 user accounts, according to The Guardian.
The UK was also among the top three most active nations in seeking data from products including Hotmail and Outlook email services, SkyDrive and Office 365.
The country has also made 9,226 requests on 14,301 Microsoft accounts, while only requests from the US and Turkey reached over 11,000 and 11,400 respectively during the period.
Content from our partners
In addition, Google’s six-monthly transparency report revealed that the UK made 2,883 requests from the internet search group in 2012.
