Apple’s latest transparency report reflected a significant increase in the number of times the US government approached the tech giant for information on issues related to national security.

The vendor received up to 16,249 national security requests which impacted as many as 8,249 accounts during the second half of 2017. In the first half it received 13,499 such requests.

However, in the second half of 2016 the figure was only 5,999.

Globally, Apple received a total of 29,718 requests for data or information involving 309,362 devices. It supplied data 79 per cent of the time. Governments also requested information on 3,358 Apple accounts, with data provided in 82 per cent of cases.

Reuters reported national security requests to Google in the first half of 2017 were around 51,000 and those to Facebook around 27,000. The companies have not, as yet, published figures for the second half of the year.

Apple said it will start reporting on requests from governments to take down apps from its App Store “in instances related to alleged violations of legal and/or policy provisions” from 2019.

Last week it was reported apps using Apple’s software development kit to integrate calling services will be banned in China as part of new regulation from the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.