There was a Yahoo NSA court battle and people only learned about it when the search engine company spoke about it. In the multinational internet company's Tumblr post, it revealed that US intelligence agency once threatened them to fine $250,000 if it don't surrender a bulk of once-secret documents. The fine could grow to $500,000 a week if Yahoo continue to defy the agency’s orders. The post was titled “Shedding Light on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC): Court Findings from Our 2007-2008 Case.”
In that post, Yahoo described the FISC and the FISC-R as secret courts that “oversee requests by the U.S. Government for surveillance orders and other types of legal process in national security investigations.” The information being used in these courts are classified, including Yahoo's role in the 2007-2008 lawsuit.
“Today we are pleased to announce the release of more than 1,500 pages of once-secret papers from Yahoo’s 2007-2008 challenge to the expansion of U.S. surveillance laws.”
These documents contain data regarding Yahoo's secret and unsuccessful legal battle to deny the government of users' data. In 2007, the US government amended a law to demand user information from online services. This is known today as NSA's Prism surveillance programme that was exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden last year.
“The released documents underscore how we had to fight every step of the way to challenge the US government’s surveillance efforts,” said the company’s general counsel,” Ron Bell.
This Yahoo NSA court battle is expected to grow bigger in the coming days as the internet company continues to stand firm to its stance.
“Our fight continues. We are still pushing for the FISC to release materials from the 2007-2008 case in the lower court. The FISC indicated previously that it was waiting on the FISC-R ruling in relation to the 2008 appeal before moving forward. Now that the FISC-R matter is resolved, we will work hard to make the materials from the FISC case public, as well.
Users come first at Yahoo. We treat public safety with the utmost seriousness, but we are also committed to protecting users’ data. We will continue to contest requests and laws that we consider unlawful, unclear, or overbroad.”
Where will this Yahoo NSA court battle go?
