Facebook has released its first-ever "transparency report" detailing the numbers of requests for subscriber information it has received from the world's governments. This first report covers only the first six months of 2013 (January 1-June 30, 2013).

According to the Facebook report, police and other governmental agencies in the United States are, by far, the leaders in requests, asking for user data 11,000-12,000 times about 20,000-21,000  Facebook users. By comparison, the next heaviest requester was India, with 3,245 requests for data about 4,144 Facebook users. In contrast, Russia, Hong Kong (and some other countries) logged only one request each.

While other countries' numbers of requests are listed as definite numbers, the number of data requests from the United States is listed as a range. As explained by Facebook:

"We have reported the numbers for all criminal and national security requests to the maximum extent permitted by law. We continue to push the United States government to allow more transparency regarding these requests, including specific numbers and types of national security-related requests. We will publish updated information for the United States as soon as we obtain legal authorization to do so."

A Facebook account and log-in is required to access the report.

Other services such as Google and Twitter have previously released their own, similar Transparency Reports.