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Governments lodge just 10 subpoenas for GitHub user info

Москва got the three it wanted, but code bucket binned plenty of other access requests

Law enforcement agencies find Github geeks so boring they submitted a paltry ten subpoenas last year to gain information on 40 of the site's eight million active accounts.

GithHub's transparency report for requests received during 2014 reveals information was provided to legal requesters in seven of these cases and about half of named users were informed.

Of those informed, 43 percent were told before data was disclosed.

The report is the first of what GitHub says will become annual disclosures.

"We want to be as open as possible to help you understand how legal requests may affect your projects," GitHub staffer Jesse Geraci says.

Six of the subpoenas relate to criminal investigations, the remainder being civil matters. Half were Grand Jury subpoenas, 20 percent from the Federal Trade Commission, while DCMA, California State, and FBI chalked up 10 percent of requests a piece.

The report did not reveal how many national security requests were submitted due to blanket gag orders. GitHub says it is somewhere been nothing and 249.

The code silo received no search warrants or court orders and says it acted on 17 of the 258 DCMA notices it received.

It compiled with Moscow's three requests to block content in a bid to keep GitHub accessible to Russia, and ignored other foreign government information demands.

All figures include those requests that have been withdrawn, duplicated, and unfilled due to poor scoping.

GitHub is the latest in a line of tech outfits including Google, Twitter, and Apple to publish transparency reports detailing court-ordered requests for information and take-down requests. ®

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