Yahoo's first ever transparency report reveals 1,490 requests from India

Internet mogul Yahoo has now published its first transparency report detailing the global government data requests made between January 1 and June 30 of this year. In the report, the company states that “We take user privacy seriously and appreciate our role as a global company in promoting freedom of expression wherever we do business.”

While there is a lot of detail about the number of national security requests that have been made, the actual breakup, like the number of individual requests from security agencies like the NSA, are still absent. Interestingly, the statistics from recently acquired Tumblr are also missing, which will be issued in a separate report.

The transparency report details that Yahoo got a total of 12,444 requests from US authorities, the largest among all nations. India saw significantly lesser requests; the government and authorities asked for information 1,490 times. This impacted a total of 2,704 accounts. Out of the total number, the company revealed content for 341 requests. Yahoo also let out ’non content’ data like e-mail addresses, names, locations, IP addresses, long details and even billing information for 494 requests. Yahoo rejected a total of 500 requests and could not find any relevant data for 155 requests.

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Yahoo’s transparency report details the number of data requests made for accounts in India

In the US, the requests impacted 40,322 users. In 6,798 of those instances, Yahoo revealed ’non-content’ user data. Content data like e-mails, Flickr uploads and Yahoo answers were revealed in response to 4,604 requests in the US. The company turned down 241 requests out of the total number, and said that it was unable to come up with any relevant data for 801 requests.

Other countries like Germany are also prominently featured, with a total of 4,295 data requests having been made. Yahoo has said that it will continue to publish such transparency reports every six months, and has promised to detail more specific data if the US government allows it.

Some other technology companies, though, have been given the authority to give out the total number of clandestine requests from agencies as long as specific details stay under wraps. Yahoo, however, does not seem to have this priviledge. While talking about this, the company has said that, “We strenuously disagree with the government’s position and will continue to advocate for greater transparency regarding requests made under national security authorities.” The company has also gone to great lengths to show users that it is fighting for their privacy, detailing how it recently won a long drawn-out court battle with the US government over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.