Yahoo! received 12,000-13,000 customer data requests

Yahoo! yesterday disclosed the number of requests it received  from law enforcement agencies in the US, close on the heels of similar revelations by Apple, Facebook and Microsoft over the past few days. Marissa Mayer, CEO and Ron Bell, General Counsel, shared in a blog post that between December 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013, Yahoo! received between 12,000-13,000 requests – criminal, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and other requests included.

The post titled “Our Commitment to Our Users’ Privacy” maintains that like others, Yahoo! too cannot reveal the number of FISA requests, since they’re classified. That said, Yahoo! urges the federal government to re-consider this bit.

Reveals number of customer data requests

“Democracy demands accountability.  Recognizing the important role that Yahoo! can play in ensuring accountability, we will issue later this summer our first global law enforcement transparency report, which will cover the first half of the year.  We will refresh this report with current statistics twice a year,” it states.

Yesterday, Apple made a similar revelation . In a post titled “Apple’s Commitment to Customer Privacy”, the Cupertino brand revealed that from December 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013, it received between 4,000-5,000 requests from US law enforcement for customer data. In those requests, between 9,000-10,000 accounts or devices were specifically mentioned, and these it said came from federal, state and local authorities and included both criminal investigations and national security matters. Apple added that most commonly it received requests from police – investigating robberies, on the lookout for missing children, trying to find a patient with Alzheimer’s, et al.