Yahoo received 138 requests for information from Singapore government
[UPDATE: on 9 Sept, correcting number of government requests for data from 139 to 138]
Yahoo Singapore received some 138 requests for data from the Singapore government from the first half of this year, it said in its global transparency report released on Friday night.
Out of these, user-posted content was disclosed for two cases, while subscriber information such as IP addresses, login details, names, billing information and alternate email addresses was given for 73 requests, or slightly more than half.
It found no data for seven requests, and rejected the remaining 56, or 41 per cent.
User-posted content includes emails, chats sent over Yahoo messenger, photos on Flickr, files or other data uploaded on any Yahoo products owned by the user whose information was requested.
189 accounts were named in government requests for data, and this figure exceeds the total number of requests made because a single account could be named in multiple requests, a user may have multiple accounts stated in government requests or the request could have sought information from a nonexistent account.
Yahoo said it received a total of 29,000 government requests from around the world, with nearly half coming from the US.
Other countries named in the report were Australia, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, Taiwan, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Britain, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico — countries where Yahoo has a legal entity that could be required to turn over data.
According to lead general counsel Ron Bell, "less than one-hundredth of one per cent" of Yahoo's worldwide user base was impacted by these requests, which include US "national security requests" that recently came to light and shocked many with its government surveillance programme.
In its report, Yahoo's legal team said requests for information from most governments are generally made in connection with criminal investigations, and it complies with these requests as they are compulsory legal processes.
It rejects requests that have defects or if the agency was seeking information beyond its jurisdiction, or data that could not be lawfully obtained with the provided legal process. The number of rejected requests also includes those that were withdrawn after Yahoo received them.
"We carefully review government data requests for legal sufficiency and interpret them narrowly in an effort to produce the least amount of data necessary to comply with the request," it said.
Each government data request was also processed in a manner consistent with local law, the Yahoo! Singapore Terms of Service, and the Yahoo! Privacy Policy.
Yahoo's move to release information follows a number of weeks behind a similar report by Facebook, which also made its government requests public in an effort to be transparent. Read that story here.
