David Cameron’s 4,489 friend requests

As the government considers reining in the public’s right to request information from the state, it is gathering ever more information from the public. On November 11th Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, released data showing that governments made 15% more requests for users’ personal information in the first half of 2015 than they did in the preceding six months. Among the ten biggest users of this material, the country whose appetite rose the most—by 55%—was Britain. The data cover requests for simple information like the last time a user logged on or their basic account details; Facebook publishes no figures on the more intrusive requests it receives, or its responses.