In its 2016 Transparency Report, TradeMe disclosed that it received more than 1500 requests for information from police in 2016, and “pushed back” on 61 of those requests, Otago Daily Times reports. “Most police enquiries related to stolen goods (522), non-delivery (288), drugs (241), and credit card fraud (81),” the report states. While Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said that the company’s transparency is laudable, privacy advocates see the stats as less a commentary on corporate openness and more so on potential law circumvention. “Instead of seeking a legal order, police have asked companies to hand over the information to assist with the ‘maintenance of the law’ — requests that carry no legal force but with which firms regularly complied,” the report states.
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