Following in the footsteps of Microsoft, Facebook and Apple, Yahoo has also set out to reveal the number of user data requests that it has received from the U.S. government. According to the company, it received more than 12,000 such requests over the course of six months.
From the looks of the numbers, Yahoo has beaten all the other tech companies in that it has received more requests than Apple, Microsoft or Facebook. In a Tumblr post co-authored by Yahoo’s CEO, Marissa Mayer, it has been revealed that Yahoo has received 12,000 to 13,000 data requests from the U.S. government within a span of six months.
The post goes on to reveal the nature of these requests in the following words, “To that end, we are disclosing the total number of requests for user data that law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made to us between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013. During that time period, we received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests, inclusive of criminal, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other requests. The most common of these requests concerned fraud, homicides, kidnappings, and other criminal investigations.”
The post stops short of revealing the exact number of FISA court orders it has received since the U.S. government has barred the companies from publicly mentioning such statistics. The encouraging thing is that the post calls on the government to allow for greater transparency on data requests. Let’s hope that such pressure from different companies may eventually pressurize the U.S. government to divulge more details on the issue.
Source: Yahoo
Courtesy: Engadget
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