Recently published data from Amazon reveals the company addressed a record volume of government requests for user information during the latter half of 2020.

These updated statistics are included in Amazon’s semi-annual transparency report, which was made available on the company’s website over the weekend.

According to Amazon, it fulfilled 27,664 government requests for user data in the final six months of 2020, a significant jump from the 3,222 requests received in the first six months of the year – representing an increase of nearly 800%. This user data encompasses shopping inquiries and information gathered from its Echo, Fire, and Ring devices.

This latest report presents the data in a revised format compared to previous transparency reports. Amazon now specifies the countries originating the most requests. While U.S. authorities have traditionally accounted for the majority of Amazon’s data requests, this report indicates that Germany submitted 42% of all requests, followed by Spain at 18%, and both Italy and the U.S. with an 11% share each.

However, the report no longer details requests categorized by the type of legal process used, instead distinguishing only between requests for user content and those for non-content data. Amazon stated it provided user content data in 52 instances.

Regarding its Amazon Web Services cloud division, reported separately, Amazon processed 523 data requests, with 75% originating from U.S. authorities. In 15 cases, Amazon supplied users’ content in response to these requests.

A representative for Amazon declined to elaborate on the reasons behind the substantial increase in data requests. (Amazon rarely provides commentary on its transparency reports.)

Amazon’s transparency report remains relatively concise among those of major technology companies, spanning just three pages. The report primarily focuses on outlining Amazon’s response procedures for each legal demand, rather than the data itself. The company, well-known for its strong emphasis on confidentiality, was the last of the major tech firms to release a transparency report, doing so in 2015. Unlike most tech companies that expanded the data included in their transparency reports – such as takedown notifications and account removals – Amazon has taken the opposite approach by removing data from its reports, despite its expanding presence in numerous households.

The Financial Times reported this weekend that Ring, the video doorbell and home security company acquired by Amazon for $1 billion, currently collaborates with 2,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States, enabling police departments to access footage from homeowners’ doorbell cameras.