A study ranked Singapore sixth in the world for surveillance across the platforms of four technology firms: Apple, Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
The research by Dutch cyber-security firm Surfshark investigates the transparency reports of technology companies from 2013 through 2023.
The ranking of 161 territories is calculated by the total number of user accounts requested per 100,000 citizens over the course of eight years by all four technology companies. T territories with less than 100,000 residents were excluded from the ranking.
Malta led the ranking with 1,128 accounts requested per 100,000 citizens across the four technology platforms, followed by Luxembourg (1,014), the United States (585), Germany (489), the United Kingdom (486) and Singapore (488). (452).
A spokesman for the Ministry of Communications and Information stated that the rise in cybercrime, such as international online fraud and cyber-extortion, meant that local authorities required information, including that of users of local and overseas accounts. In Singapore, for instance, the number of social media impersonation frauds has tripled from 786 in 2019 to 2,919 in 2020.
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