With customer information privacy becoming a major concern with many in society, Verizon released a transparency report for its international businesses.

Verizon revealed the total number of demands for customer data requested law enforcement in countries outside the United States. The international transparency report only featured law enforcement requests from the same country where a customer's data is located.

According to Verizon, it is "very rare" for a government to request data stored in another country but it is not unheard-of. Verizon added that such requests usually are for a U.S. customer's data. Verizon reassured it does not comply to such situations and instead transfers the requesting governmental agency to the closest applicable diplomatic channel as noted in the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT).

"In 2013, we did not receive any demands from the [U.S.] government for data stored in other countries," disclosed Verizon. "We received a small number of requests last year from non-U.S. governments for data stored in the [U.S.], all of which were referred to the MLAT process."

Verizon noted its has blocked access to specific websites outside of the U.S. due to either government orders, regulations, or other legal requirements. Five countries were involved in blocking certain websites, even in Latin America with Colombia. Verizon stated it was required to block access to almost 1,200 websites by orders of the Colombian government. The government required Verizon to ban access to specific websites due to child pornography. Colombia was the sole Latin American country noted to have Verizon restrict Internet access.

Outside of Latin America, Belgium, Greek and Portugal encountered blocked access to either copyright or online gambling concerns. India was also highlighted but laws forced Verizon not to reveal reasons for blocking access.

Latin American Verizon customers can breathe a sigh of relief as no law enforcement demands were made for one's data during 2013. Of the 11 countries Verizon identifies, none were in Latin America.

The top country outside the U.S. to request customer data was Germany with 2,996 demands. France ranked second with 1,347-law enforcement demands while the United Kingdom followed with 386 requests. Austria, Belgium, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Taiwan were also included.

Australia was also identified for requesting customer data, but its number of demands might not be definite. Although Verizon revealed Australia made 29 requests, the company stated, "In Australia we are precluded by law from reporting the number of warrants we received from law enforcement for interceptions or stored communications."

A similar situation also took place with Indian officials. Verizon was precluded by Indian law from discussing requests made by the Government of India or restrictions of websites.

"While we have a legal obligation to provide customer information to law enforcement in response to lawful demands, we take seriously our duty to provide such information only when authorized by law," said Verizon's Executive Vice President for Public Policy and General Counsel Randal S. Milch. "Our dedicated teams carefully review each demand and reject those that fail to comply with the law. If a demand is overly broad or vague, we will not disclose any information in response or will work to narrow the scope of the information we produce. Some demands seek information that we simply do not have; accordingly, we produce no information at all or only some of the information sought by those demands from law enforcement."

Verizon's transparency report on U.S. customer data was also released. The company noted 320,000 requests were compiled between Jan. 1, 2013, and Dec. 31, 2013.

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