Yahoo Discloses Data Requests: Google’s the Last Unknown of the PRISM Big Three

In a blog post late Monday, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer announced the number of requests for user data that the U.S. has made of the company in a six-month period, making Yahoo! the fourth major technology company to do so in the last week or so, after Facebook, Microsoft, and Apple. Yahoo!'s admission was shorter and less detailed than some of the others and represented the highest count of United States government data requests in a six-month period divulged so far.

The Age of Disclosure

In language very similar to Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft's, Mayer said on Yahoo!'s Tumblr blog that between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013, Yahoo! "received between 12,000 and 13,000 requests" for their users' data from U.S. law enforcement agencies, including both criminal investigations and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) requests concerning national security, as well as other requests. Also matching the rhetoric of other tech companies' statements, Mayer stated, "the most common of these requests concerned fraud, homicides, kidnappings, and other criminal investigations," though Mayer declined provide illustrative examples of small-town sheriffs finding missing children or police investigating an assault, as Facebook and Apple did.

Mayer also reassured readers of Yahoo!'s intentions and pushed for the federal government to allow companies to go into more detail in their disclosures. "We've worked hard over the years to earn our users' trust and we fight hard to preserve it," wrote Mayer, later adding that "democracy demands accountability," and stating, "As always, we will continually evaluate whether further actions can be taken to protect the privacy of our users and our ability to defend it.  We appreciate-and do not take for granted-the trust you place in us.

Mayer's Pursuit Of Transparancy 

Noticeably absent in Yahoo!'s disclosure statement, when compared to, say, Facebook's, is an accounting of how many the company's users' accounts were targeted in the 12,000 to 13,000 U.S. law enforcement information requests, or a reiteration of the denial that the National Security Agency (NSA) or other federal agencies were given "direct access" to Yahoo! servers, though the company has publically denied that before. Though Yahoo! didn't provide as much information or explanation in its statement as any of the other companies, Mayer expressed some frustration with the legal restrictions on disclosure placed on the company, saying, "Like all companies, Yahoo! cannot lawfully break out FISA request numbers at this time because those numbers are classified; however, we strongly urge the federal government to reconsider its stance on this issue."

Mayer promised more transparency to Yahoo!'s users, starting with a "global law enforcement transparency report" due out later this summer, which will cover the first six months of 2013. The CEO also promised regular disclosure reports from now on, coming twice a year with refreshed statistics.

Waiting For Google

Since Edward Snowden leaked the NSA PRISM surveillance program - which included collecting data for national security investigations from major internet technology companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Apple, Facebook, and AOL - the companies are scrambling to repair their images by disclosing information user-data requests from law enforcement agencies. So far, Apple revealed on Monday that they received between 4,000 and 5,000 total requests for a six-month period, following Facebook and Microsoft's disclosures the previous Friday of 9,000 to 10,000 requests and 6,000 and 7,000 requests for user information, respectively, between July and December 2012.

A major outlier now is Google, which has not disclosed the number of requests it has received, though Google has publicly stated that it has asked the U.S. Government for clearance to make those disclosures. In the Washington Post story - which, along with the Guardian's, broke the PRISM program open to the public - stated that classified documents named Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft as responsible for "98 percent of PRISM production."

Visit back for more updates on tech companies' disclosures on the issue, a growing pile to which Google might add its own, soon.