Vodafone has published a Law Enforcement Disclosure report in which it spells out the legal frameworks, governance principles and operating procedures involved when law enforcement and intelligence agencies ask to eavesdrop on users.

The company said this is the first time that such an annual report has been published by an operator. It looks at 29 countries where Vodafone directly controls the local operator and covers the 12 months to end-March 2014.

The report has three sections. One is an overview of the legal, governance and operational factors behind government access to customers’ private data.

Next is a country-by-country section providing statistics where possible, both from Vodafone and from official sources, on the volume of demands made by government authorities, as well as Vodafone’s analysis of the extent to which it is lawful to disclose information related to agency and authority demands.

Vodafone’s own statistics focus on two categories of law enforcement demands which, it said, account for the overwhelming majority: lawful interception and access to communications data.

For example, in Italy the operator received over 606,000 demands from the government for access to communications data (the number of demands for lawful interception of calls is already published by the government). Elsewhere in Europe, Vodafone received 49,000 demands for access to communications data in Spain, and 24,000 demands for interception. In Portugal,  28,000 demands were made for communications data (lawful intercept figures are already published by the government).

The company cautions against country vs country comparisons because similar types and volumes of demands will be disclosed in different ways from one country to the next.

In other countries, such as Egypt, any kind of disclosure of such numbers is unlawful.

The third section is a legal annexe summarising the most relevant legislation governing access to customer data in each of Vodafone’s 29 countries of operation. This information has not previously been published by any operator, said the company, and is made available on a creative commons licence to enable others to expand the body of work over time.

Furthermore the company said it will update the information disclosed in this report annually.

Significantly, Vodafone commented: “Compiling this report has been a very complex and challenging endeavour. Given the sensitivity of any discussion of agency or authority activity in certain countries, it has also not been without risk.”

The starting point was to create a single report which would provide a coherent picture of the 29 countries. “However, after months of detailed analysis, it has become clear that there is, in fact, very little coherence and consistency in law and agency and authority practice, even between neighbouring EU member states”.

There are also differing views between governments on the best response to public demands for greater transparency, and public attitudes to government surveillance allegations varies between countries, it said.

Many governments around the world have married wide-ranging legal powers to advanced electronic surveillance. This has put pressure on citizens’ privacy as security services have adopted more powers. The leaks by former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has brought matters to a head.

“Media reports of widespread government surveillance and data ‘harvesting’ by intelligence agencies have triggered a significant public debate about the transparency, proportionality and legitimacy – even lawfulness – of the alleged activities of a number of high-profile agencies,” said Vodafone.

The company noted that other operators in Germany and Australia  recently began to publish their own law enforcement disclosure reports