Internet giant Yahoo has revealed that the U.S. government pushed the company to share its user data or pay a hefty fine of $250,000 on a daily basis.
Yahoo suggests that the government requests were a part of the U.S. National Security Agency's (NSA) surveillance program. The NSA has been facing a lot of criticism after Edward Snowden, a former agency contractor, released classified documents to the media in June 2013.
Ron Bell, Yahoo's General Counsel, released a statement on Tumblr, which sheds some light on the government's request to share user data. The company points out in the statement that the U.S. government made an amendment to a law in 2007 to request user data from Internet companies such as Yahoo. Bell reveals that Yahoo refused to release the requested information and also challenged the government's authority on the matter.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) upheld Yahoo's plea and ordered the company to issue the requested user information. Yahoo also suggests that the FISC and the FISC-R are secret courts and details about hearing at these courts are classified and closed to public. Yahoo claims that the company has battled to declassify details and share some findings with the public.
Yahoo announced the release of over 1,500 pages of secret documents related to the U.S. government surveillance program.
"Despite the declassification and release, portions of the documents remain sealed and classified to this day, unknown even to our team. The released documents underscore how we had to fight every step of the way to challenge the U.S. Government's surveillance efforts. At one point, the U.S. Government threatened the imposition of $250,000 in fines per day if we refused to comply," says Bell.
Yahoo also claims that it treats user information with seriousness and is committed to safeguard user data. The company also announced that it will endure to contest such government requests, which it deems unlawful, overboard or unclear.
Snowden previously claimed that the U.S. government had direct authority to access to user database of Internet companies. However, Internet companies had denied the allegations and announced that they released information to the government only when they received a lawful request.
The latest Yahoo announcement reaffirms that U.S. government agencies cannot directly access the database of any company, but they have to issue a request to get classified information about an individual or in bulk.
