GETTYgettyOver the last ten years, the number of user accounts handed over to the U.S. government by Google, Apple and Meta has increased by more than six times.An analysis by Proton has revealed that the companies have handed over data on 3.1 million accounts to the U.S. authorities over the last decade, providing data including emails, files, messages and other highly personal information.Between late 2014 and early 2024, the number of accounts shared by Google jumped 530%; by 675% at Meta; and 632% at Applealthough this last was partly due to an atypical second half of 2022, when the company shared over 300,000 accounts.The number of U.S. data requests, said Proton, has gone up rapidly and consistently over the last ten years, regardless of which political party has been in the White House."In the past, the government relied on massive, complex and legally questionable surveillance apparatus run by organizations like the NSA. But thanks to the advent of surveillance capitalism, this is no longer necessary," said Raphael Auphan, COO of Proton."All thats required for the government to find out just about everything it could ever need is a request message to big tech in California. And as long as Big Tech refuses to implement widespread end-to-end encryption, these massive, private data reserves will remain open to abuse."The level of U.S. government data collection is substantially higher than that of most other countries. Indeed, in the last 12 months for which data was available, Google and Meta received more requests from the U.S. governmentnearly half a millionthan the rest of the Fourteen Eyes Surveillance Community combined.The second highest number of requests from Meta and Google, from Germany, was 174,664, and from France 60,738. At the bottom end of the scale, the figure for Norway was just 704.And the U.S. figures dont include Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Content Requests to Meta and Google, which have also increased by 2171% and 594% respectively in the same time period."FISA Content Requests are particularly concerning as they are issued by secretive courts with little oversight and cannot be legally refused by the companies," the researchers said.Last year, a journalist for The Times requested her data from Metaand received 20,000 pages, including 20,000 interactions with websites and apps that werent even directly connected to her Meta accounts."To be clear, we are not faulting big tech companies for complying with lawful, limited data requests. Every company must comply with the laws of the land that governs them," said Proton editor Richie Koch.They can't, he said, apply end-to-end encryption or even minimize user data collection without destroying their ad-based business models."To protect their users privacy, these companies would have to fundamentally change how they make money, which is not something they have ever shown any appetite for," he said.