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U.S. Threatened Massive Fine To Force Yahoo To Release Data

Posted by timothy on from the your-government-at-work dept.

Advocatus Diaboli writes The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it failed to comply with a broad demand to hand over user data that the company believed was unconstitutional, according to court documents unsealed Thursday that illuminate how federal officials forced American tech companies to participate in the NSA's controversial PRISM program. The documents, roughly 1,500 pages worth, outline a secret and ultimately unsuccessful legal battle by Yahoo to resist the government's demands. The company's loss required Yahoo to become one of the first to begin providing information to PRISM, a program that gave the National Security Agency extensive access to records of online communications by users of Yahoo and other U.S.-based technology firms.

4 of 223 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Whenever I read stuff like this ..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    James Madison said it!

    "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."
    - James Madison

  2. Classic conflict of interest by troll+-1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The judges in these kind of cases are appointed by the executive, the same branch of government they are supposed to keep in check. This is a problem because the executive has a tendency to appoint only judges with views similar to itself. So it's not surprising these judges often rule in favor of the executive.

  3. Re:Yahoo knew fine was a bluff by Euler · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Would have been interesting, paying the fine would require disclosure to shareholders? Is that a violation of 'super secret stuff'? Who wins SEC vs. NSA?

  4. Re:It's a bad sign by demachina · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Note the date, 2008, not 2002. Approximately the time financial markets started crashing and the Occupy and Tea Party movements started building. Ya think the U.S. government was more worried about Islamic terrorists or ordinary Americans who would soon be fed up with massive corruption in D.C. and Wall Street. Were they trying to prevent another 9/11 or building the capacity to suppress the backlash when millions of ordinary people would soon be thrown out of their jobs and homes, while Wall Street would get massively bailed out, and return to business as usual, getting rich.

    The U.S. did a spectacularly good job of crushing Occupy. Did they use domestic spying to do it.

    War is when your government tells you who the enemy is, revolution is when you figure it out for yourself.

    --
    @de_machina