Comcast answered 25K government requests for customer data in first half of 2013

Comcast's (Nasdaq: CMCSA) recently issued "Transparency Report" indicates that the company answered 24,698 criminal requests in the first six months of 2013, the bulk of which (19,377) were subpoenas.

Comcast government requests

Source: Comcast

The Philadelphia-based mega-media conglomerate said it "received legal requests from U.S. law enforcement and national security entities at the federal, state and local government levels" during the year and was providing a breakdown of those requests in compliance with U.S. Department of Justice instructions.

"Like all U.S. businesses, we must respond to valid government requests for customer information made in subpoenas, orders, warrants and other legal processes," the company said in its report. "Before we respond, we review every request carefully to ensure it is authorized by law and is valid."

Indicating the level to which Comcast's services are now diversified, the report included two requests for wiretaps and 93 requests for pen register/trap and trace, the report said.

The report, while seemingly indicating a lot of legal activity going on at Comcast, actually reveals "Comcast isn't under quite as much scrutiny as its peers," a Telemanagement item stated.

"The provider received less than 1,000 national security letters last year while Verizon reported between 1,000 and 1,999 and AT&T says it got between 2,000 and 2,999," the post said.

For more:
- read the Comcast transparency report
-Telemanagement has this post

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