But it could be argued if the entity "asking nicely" is the government, then that counts as coercion. While not technically illegal, it could be an abuse of power.
Handing out data after requests is not an abuse of power, that's a failure of the data storage facility to do a bare minimum attempt to protect their users' rights. I say this because the actual abuse of power is secret Patriot Act warrants. When the government wants data, they don't use some sort of Mafia-style coercion, they just make it illegal to not give them the data.
