Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is the latest in the list of tech heavyweights to reveal the number of requests for user data from the federal law enforcement agencies. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) said in a Tumblr posting that it received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests for user data in the six month period between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) CEO Marissa Mayer said that the most common types of requests were related to homicides, fraud and criminal investigations. Marissa Mayer said the Web portal can’t escape the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests lawfully, but she has asked the government to reconsider its stance on the matter. FISA allows the intelligence agencies to scrutinize the communications of non-U.S. citizens believed to be involved in terrorist activities and other crimes.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) said in a statement that it has worked hard for years to win the users’ trust, and the company will fight hard to protect it. The Sunnyvale, California-based company said it will issue a global law enforcement transparency report by the end of this year, and will then regularly issue the report every six months with updated statistics. Last week, it was also revealed that Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) has tried to overturn a secret court order that instructed the company to reveal user data to intelligence agencies.
Yahoo And Other Companies Under Pressure
Technology companies have come under intense scrutiny after Edward Snowden told the Guardian and the Washington Post that the National Security Agency is gathering private data of users under a federal program tactically called PRISM. Snowden worked for the NSA. The security agency created the PRISM program to gain access to user data stored on the servers of technology companies like Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO),Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) and many others. After Edward Snowden disclosed about the secret program, NSA confirmed its existence.
Recently, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) revealed that it has received more than 4,000 data requests from authorities. Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) got 6,000-7,000 such requests, while Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) received 9,000-10,000 requests for user data.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) shares were up 0.90 percent to $26.78 at 10:44 AM EDT.
