Vodafone Group Plc’ share price up, posts a law enforcement disclosure report revealing 29 countries asked for user data access

The second-biggest wireless carrier in the world – Vodafone Group Plc posted its first law enforcement disclosure report, revealing that a total of 29 governments asked to get access to its network over a year. The report covers a period from April 2013 to March 2014 and emphasizes on the extent of the monitoring operations of the authorities.

The governments had a diversity of requests that varied from intercepting calls and messages to getting access to a vast circle of communications data. Vodafone Group Plc, which is based in the U.K., reported that the tapping was commonly used in some of the 29 countries where it operates. According to the companys report, six of the 29 countries had direct access to data stored within its network.

The first law enforcement disclosure report of the wireless carrier emphasized on the the governments lawful requests. Still, Vodafone Group Plc did not list the names of the countries involved in the requests because of legal reasons.

Vodafone Group Plc said in its statement, which was cited by the Wall Street Journal: “Refusal to comply with a countrys laws is not an option. If we do not comply with a lawful demand for assistance, governments can remove our license to operate, preventing us from providing services to our customers. The need for governments to balance their duty to protect the state and its citizens against their duty to protect individual privacy is now the focus of a significant global public debate. In our view, it is governments—not communications operators—who hold the primary duty to provide greater transparency on the number of agency and authority demands issued to operators.”

However, the company said that revealing any information associated with wiretapping or interception of the customers phone calls and messages is not legal in a number of countries, including Malta, India, South Africa, Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, Hungary and Albania.

On the other hand, in six of the countries where Vodafone operates, there is a legal requirement concerning the tapping. The wireless carrier specifically explained that it does not intend to reveal which the countries are due to fear of local sanction by the governments of these countries against its staff there.

Vodafone Group Plc was gaining 1.61% to trade at 207.29 pence per share by 9:04 GMT, marking a one year change of +7.5%. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 23 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Vodafone Group Plc have a median target of 240.00, with a high estimate of 275.00 and a low estimate of 130.00. The median estimate represents a 17.65% increase from the last price of 204.00.