Yahoo Updates Transparency Report

By Aaron Altschuler, VP & Associate General Counsel

Today we’re issuing our fifth transparency report, continuing our efforts to provide as much information as we can about government requests for our users’ data and government requests to remove content.

This latest transparency report contains information covering the first six months of 2015 (January 1 - June 30, 2015). This includes National Security Letters (NSLs) and law enforcement data requests (such as search warrants, court orders, and subpoenas issued in criminal investigations). FISA requests included are from (July 1 - December 31, 2014), as they are subject to a six-month delay under U.S. law.

An important example of how we put users first is our success in helping to protect our users by ending bulk data collection and significantly reforming U.S. government surveillance programs and practices by pushing Congress to pass the USA Freedom Act. Yahoo is also advocating to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which requires the U.S. government to obtain a warrant in order to access the private communications of our users. We will continue to push for legislative reform - both in the United States and around the world - that protects user privacy.

In July, we were honored to be one of the few technology companies recognized by the Electronic Frontier Foundation in its annual survey Who Has Your Back? 2015: Protecting Your Data from Government Requests for earning 5/5 stars for protecting user data. Because we never take the relationship we’ve cultivated with our users for granted, over one billion people around the world place their trust in us to provide them with Internet services across mobile and web.

As always, we will continue our efforts to protect our users’ information from unclear, improper, overbroad or unlawful government requests.