Telus Corp.'s (TSX:T) first "transparency" report reveals that the Vancouver-based telecom company received about 103,500 official requests for information about its customers last year.
A majority of the requests — nearly 56,800 — were in emergency situations, such as to verify the location of 911 callers and another 40,900 requests were for names and addresses that are publicly available through directories.
Telus also received about 4,300 court-ordered requests in 2013, mostly as part of domestic police investigations but also two foreign requests made under Canada's treaty obligations.
It also received 154 other requests as part of police investigations into suspected Internet child exploitation, without court orders — but the company says it no longer will provide such information in most cases without a court order.
Telus executive vice-president Eros Spadotto says the company is trying to strike a balance between fulfilling its responsibilities under the law and concern for its customers privacy.
Toronto-based Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B) issued a similar report in June, the first major Canadian carrier to do so after Chantal Bernier — then the interim federal privacy commissioner — said in April that her office had repeatedly asked telecom companies to disclose statistics and the scope of warrantless disclosure of data.
The privacy office asked 12 telecom companies in 2011 for information about their customer-information disclosure but, instead of receiving individual reports, received aggregate data from nine of the 12 through an industry association.
The privacy office estimated that federal government had asked Canadian telecom companies for private customer information about 1.2 million times each year.
Telus shares began Thursday's trading up three cents to $38.98, within a 52-week range of $33.56 to $42.40.
