The transparency report released by Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) yesterday revealed that Uncle Sam is always watching you albeit in a creepy way. The report, which included the data disclosure details for the first half of the year, showed that the country topped the list, with requests to divulge account information of 12533 Yahoo users.
Compare this with runner up Taiwan, which had inquired about only a miniscule 4759 accounts. Over 800 million people around the globe for whom logging into Yahoo to check emails, read news or share photos has become a part of daily life now wonder if this should be a cause for concern.
Yahoo! cares about user privacy
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) was quick to assure its millions of loyal users that their private details are safe in its care. Yahoo Chief, Marissa Mayer, was noted as saying that her company fought hard to preserve the trust of its users which it had worked hard for years to earn.
The California based company reported that had assented to the disclosure request and provided the required data only in few of the cases even after being threatened with a hefty fine for incompliance.
Yahoo! stood up against unconstitutional privacy violations by the government
Ron Bell, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s general counsel, stated that this trend of internet snooping by governments is ‘worrisome’ and noted that efforts to improve the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty by the United States Department of Justice could help discourage the proliferation of this trend. He added that the company will continue its endeavor to protect user privacy from being violated through wrongful requests from the government.
The United States intelligence services have been censured heavily ever since confidential files related to the Nation Security Agency’s snooping program had been made public by its former contractor, Edward Snowden. Following the leak, several high profile internet companies such as Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) have gone on the record saying that they did not surrender user data without putting up a legal battle.
