Vodafone Prompts Protests Over Government Wiretapping

Vodafone Group Plc, the second-largest mobile-phone company, stirred an outcry from privacy groups from the U.K. to Italy as it revealed the extent of wire-tapping of users by governments around the world.

In its first law-enforcement disclosure report, Vodafone said 29 governments from Albania to the U.K. asked for access to its network or user data. The requests range from wiretapping, or intercepting calls and messages, to accessing data such as call and Web-browsing records, according to the report released yesterday, which covered the year through March 31.