Gardaí sought access to hundreds of private emails

Gardaí sought access to hundreds of personal emails and other electronic accounts last year amid growing concerns over the safeguards protecting privacy.

The first Microsoft Transparency Report, published yesterday, found gardaí made 72 requests to the technology giant relating to 222 different accounts.

In five cases, the contents of emails were provided to gardaí, while non-content user information was revealed in 46 cases.