Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) Fined For User Data

The United States government and Yahoo! Inc (NASDAQ:YHOO) have been secretly engaged in a discrete legal battle regarding requests for customer data that began in 2008. The disagreement was intensified to such levels that the United States government took action to levy a charge of $250,000 a day on the internet company is it did not comply.

Yesterday, Yahoo went public with the threat of the United States government, after a federal court released more than 1,500 pages of legal documents that were under a once classified court case regarding the power of the National Security Agency surveillance initiatives. These newly released documents revealed a whole new perspective on the tensions between technology companies in the United States and the intelligence agency of the country. This all comes long before Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor, began to leak information to the public in 2013.

The requests, and the long and drawn out discussions that can result from this at the court of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, are usually kept as tight secret. Up until the summer of last year, Yahoo was not permitted to reveal that it had disagreed with and challenged the United States government’s initiatives. Other companies that have challenged the government’s requests for records include Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), who have taken their legal woes to court.

According to Mark Zwillinger, an external consultant for Yahoo, the issues at stake in this lawsuit are the most severe issues that the country deals with today: to what extent will the rights to privacy for the residents of the United States be guaranteed in the name of protecting our national security. This statement was released in 2008.

The documents from the court case did not disclose what exactly the United States government requested from Yahoo. However, Yahoo stated that the biggest issue of the case was whether the communication activates of the legal residents or citizens of the United States are protected by the Constitution.

After the documents were unsealed and released, some portions were still redacted, such as the number of times the government requested those documents from Yahoo.

Most of the collection of records of activity on the Internet from US companies can result in the collection of data on those users in the United States.

The Department of Justice replied with a legal response, stating that the United States government uses intensive and extensive procedures to make sure that its surveillance activities are accurately and appropriately targeted.

According to the records from the court, the government began to request warranties of surveillance from select customers of Yahoo starting in November of 2007. Yahoo refused, and requested that the surveillance court prevent the government from issuing more requests. The judge refused to do so, and even responded by threatening Yahoo with a fine. The Department of Justice had requested a fine of $250,000 each day, but the judge was not specific in the amount.           Yahoo complied with the demand on May of 2008.

According to Yahoo, the company refused to comply with what they saw as an overbroad and constitutional surveillance of the people of the United States, and presented a challenge to the authority of the United States government. According to Ron Bell, the general counsel of Yahoo, the company’s challenge to the government and its following appeal did not succeed in the case.

This dispute was primarily in regards to the Protect America Act, a law that was passed in 2007 that allowed the government to monitor and eavesdrop on individuals that were believed to be associated with terrorist groups, all without a warrant. While this legislation expired in 2008, it was replaced by other laws that gave the government essentially the same authority and power.

The Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated that the court ruled that the government had set up substantial procedures to ensure that the rights guaranteed by the fourth amendment of targeted people of the United States were sufficiently protected. Overall, the court ruled that the requests by the United States government were reasonable.

The announcement comes as some officials from the intelligence department are clamoring for the court to open more of the legal reasoning for the controversial surveillance programs. This does not mean that the government has stopped using or slowed down in the usage of any of these programs.

Between January and June of 2013, the latest period of time that Yahoo had released its data for, the internet company said previously that it had received between zero and nine hundred and ninety nine foreign intelligence requests for user content that covered between 30,000 and 30,999 individual accounts. Yahoo did not reveal how many of those requests it had already fulfilled.

Yahoo, among many other tech companies, have pushed to make more information public about the requests from the government for data on users.

Proponents for privacy have been engaging in similar discussion with the government for a long time. It wasn’t until Mr. Snowden’s leaks that disclosed secrets of the United States government’s efforts for surveillance, that those discussions were thought to be mostly theoretical.

According to Reggie Walton, the FISC judge, he stated after his treat to fine Yahoo in 2008, that the order is sealed and will not be disclosed by either party.

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