"Emergency requests are the new trend" – Big Tech increasingly forced to disclose users' data to authorities worldwide, according to a new report

• New Surfshark's research reveals a steady increase in government requests for user data
• Big Tech giants are also increasingly targeted with emergency requests, which involve less legal scrutiny
• While the UK leads the demand for emergency requests, the US leads global demand for users' data

Around 190 governments have requested data from a total of 8.4 million user accounts since 2020 – a new research conducted by Surfshark, one of the best VPN providers on the market, can reveal.

What most concerns Surfshark's experts, however, is that emergency requests are becoming "a new trend."

A total of 153 thousand account data requests have been made in cases of emergency since 2013, in fact, with the UK leading the demand globally. While these requests are crucial to safeguard public safety, the room for abuse is also high.

The risks of a rise in emergency requests

Authorities can issue emergency ...