Tumblr has reached 170 Million blogs, as reported by the website’s official staff account. The bigger they get, the more the government will request user data from them. The staff account believes it is important that users know what data the government asks for from the site, as the day will inevitably come when they ask for your personal data. Starting today, they have announced that they will begin producing transparency reports bi-annually, the reports can be seen on the official tumblr blog. The reports will detail the total number of requests for data from different sources, why they receive them, and how they respond to them.
Tumblr received a total of 462 requests for user data in 2013, and responded with account data (e.g., email and IP address) 76% of the time. A small subset of those responses also included content of blog posts (e.g., text, audio, images, or video).
The remaining requests (24%) were illegal, vague, or inaccurate—so we refused to provide any data at all.
The website has done us a favor by posting their transparency report for the year of 2013. You can see the full report on the blog linked above.
The original post reports that striking the right balance between privacy and legal responsibilities is no small task, but hopes this report demonstrates the staff’s commitment to the community of the website. What are your thoughts on the Tumblr staff’s transparency to it’s community? Your comments would be greatly appreciated.
