By Chris Madsen, Head of Global Law Enforcement, Security, and Safety

As part of our ongoing commitment to transparency, Yahoo is announcing today the public disclosure of three National Security Letters (NSLs) that it received from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). This marks the first time any company has been able to publicly acknowledge receiving an NSL as a result of the reforms of the USA Freedom Act.

We’re able to disclose details of these NSLs today because, with the enactment of the USA Freedom Act, the FBI is now required to periodically assess whether an NSL’s nondisclosure requirement is still appropriate, and to lift it when not. We believe this is an important step toward enriching a more open and transparent discussion about the legal authorities law enforcement can leverage to access user data.     

As explained in our Transparency Report, an NSL is a type of compulsory legal process used by the FBI in national security investigations. The letters Yahoo is making public today were received in April 2013, August 2013, and June 2015, respectively. Yahoo complied with these three NSLs and, to the extent we had the information requested, we disclosed it as authorized by law. Specifically, we produced the name, address, and length of service for each of the accounts identified in two of the NSLs, and no information in response to the third NSL as the specified account did not exist in our system. Each NSL included a nondisclosure provision that prevented Yahoo from previously notifying its users or the public of their existence.

As set forth in the FBI’s letters to Yahoo, “[c]onsistent with the requirements of the USA Freedom Act of 2015 and the Termination Procedures for NSL Nondisclosure Requirement, the FBI … reviewed whether to continue the nondisclosure requirement” in three NSLs issued to us “and … determined that nondisclosure is no longer necessary.”  As a result, Yahoo is now able to publicly acknowledge having received three NSLs. Going forward, we will update our Transparency Report to include the number of NSLs received and number of accounts specified in those letters as the FBI lifts additional nondisclosure provisions.

Until our next biannual update of the report, here is what has changed with the disclosure of the three letters today:

Yahoo has always maintained a strong commitment to protecting our users’ safety, security and privacy. The release of these documents and information regarding NSLs today is consistent with our commitment to sharing as much information as we legally can regarding government data requests. We believe there is value in making these documents available to the public to promote an informed discussion about the legal authorities available to law enforcement. They also demonstrate the importance of hard-fought reforms to surveillance law achieved with passage of the USA Freedom Act.

***Note: The letters we released have been redacted to protect the identities of the FBI agents involved in the investigations, our own personnel, and the Yahoo users affected by the NSLs. The affected users received notice of the NSLs directly from us under our User Notice Policy.***