Yahoo last year secretly came up with a program to help the federal government sift through all incoming emails received by its users, according to a new report.
Company CEO Marissa Mayer made the decision to comply with a classified directive demanding that the company provide assistance, sources told Reuters. The decision allegedly resulted in the June 2015 departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos.
"Yahoo is a law-abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States," Yahoo said in a statement. The company declined further request for comment.
It has not been reported what agency asked Yahoo for help. It is the policy of the NSA not to confirm the existence of possible operations, though it isn't clear that agency would have a need for assistance from a private company.
Operations made public by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden in 2013 revealed the agency engaged in similar data collection through its PRISM and Upstream programs, legal authorities for which have not expired. But those programs are limited, in principle, to surveillance of foreign nationals.
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05.02.2024