Government’s Threat of Daily Fine for Yahoo Shows Aggressive Push for Data - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/12/technology/documents-unsealed-in-yahoos-case-against-us-data-requests.html
The federal government was so determined to collect the Internet communications of foreign Yahoo customers in 2008 that it threatened the company with fines of $250,000 a day if it did not immediately comply with a secret court order to turn over the data.
The records also provide perhaps the clearest corroboration yet of the Internet companies’ contention that they did not provide the government with direct access to vast amounts of customer data on their computers.
When the Snowden revelations surfaced last summer, there were reports that the government had direct access to look into the databases of Internet companies for any information they wanted, which the companies have denied. Instead, they said, the government had to send them a lawful request for information on a specific individual and only then would they hand it over.
In a document reporting on its compliance with the 2008 order to turn over customer data, Yahoo said it had begun surveillance on the requested accounts, beginning with the government’s highest-priority targets. That indicates that the government was sending Yahoo the names of the people it was investigating and waiting for the company to send the information, as opposed to directly accessing Yahoo’s servers.