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Yahoo Demands Secret Court Release NSA Prism Documents: Report

Yahoo Demands Secret Court Release Prism Docs: Report
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By 

Deputy Managing Editor Of Impact & Innovation, The Huffington Post

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In a move that seems geared to gaining customer trust, Yahoo is asking a secret court to publicly disclose the details of a controversial ruling that forced the Internet company to hand over private data, the Silicon Valley Mercury News reported Thursday.

Yahoo appears to be the first Internet company to make such a request of the ultra-secretive court of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The court is in the spotlight now after revelations published in the Guardian revealed that it isoverseeing the NSA's spying programs, in which customer data from major tech companies like Google and Microsoft are being collected.

"If Yahoo can show that it fought strenuously and really did its best to try to protect its users," Jennifer Stisa Granick, a civil liberties expert at Stanford law school's Center for Internet and Society told Mercury News, "that may make people feel more comfortable about Yahoo having their data."

Details of Yahoo's dealings with the secret court came to light on June 13 when a New York Times story detailed how the company's legal team fought a request seeking user information. Yahoo tried to argue the request was unconstitutional, the NYT reports, but was forced to give up the information.

The next day Yahoo filed a motion to release court records related to the case to the public, as the case was "now in the public interest." FISA agreed to release the fact that it was Yahoo who was involved in the case, but left all other details redacted.

Yahoo is now seeking to release more of the records that describe exactly what happened in court. Revealing these court documents is "critical to having a democracy," Granick told Mercury News.

As we now know, thanks to revelations leaked by Edward Snowden, the NSA has collected data from many other organizations, including Google, Microsoft, Skype, and Facebook. Yahoo, like many of these companies, has made it clear that it is not voluntarily giving the government any information, it only gives up the required information when the government lawfully demands it.

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Before You Go

Politicians React To NSA Collecting Phone Records
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)(01 of07)
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said the court order for telephone records was part of a three-month renewal of an ongoing practice, the Associated Press reported."It’s called protecting America," Feinstein said at a Capitol Hill news conference. (credit:AP)
Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.)(02 of07)
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Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said "the administration owes the American public an explanation of what authorities it thinks it has." (credit:AP)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)(03 of07)
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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) thought everyone "should just calm down.""Right now I think everyone should just calm down and understand this isn't anything that's brand new," Reid said. (credit:Getty Images)
Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)(04 of07)
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Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) said in a statement:"This type of secret bulk data collection is an outrageous breach of Americans’ privacy." (credit:AP)
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)(05 of07)
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he was "glad" the NSA was collecting phone records. "I don’t mind Verizon turning over records to the government if the government is going to make sure that they try to match up a known terrorist phone with somebody in the United States," Graham said in an interview on "Fox and Friends." (credit:AP)
Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.)(06 of07)
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Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) also claimed that reports of the NSA collecting phone records was "nothing particularly new.""Every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this," Chambliss said. "And to my knowledge we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information." (credit:AP)
Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)(07 of07)
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Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) found the NSA collecting phone records "troubling.""The fact that all of our calls are being gathered in that way -- ordinary citizens throughout America -- to me is troubling and there may be some explanation, but certainly we all as citizens are owed that, and we're going to be demanding that," Corker said. (credit:AP)
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