about many of its users<\/a>.<\/p>\nYahoo is in the process of being taken over by Verizon Communications in a $4.8bn (\u00a33.8bn) deal. The telecoms provider declined to comment on the report.<\/p>\n
‘Upset workers’<\/h2>\n
Reuters reports that the scans were requested by either the National Security Agency (NSA) or the FBI, according to three sources – two of whom it says were ex-Yahoo employees.<\/p>\n
The news agency says that the software scanned for a string of characters within all incoming emails, but adds that it was unable to determine what information was handed over or if other internet companies had received a similar demand.<\/p>\n
US law allows the country’s intelligence agencies to order the release of customer data that they believe could prevent a terrorist attack, among other reasons.<\/p>\n
Companies can challenge such orders behind closed doors in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.<\/p>\n
But Reuters reports that Yahoo decided not to fight the matter because it thought it would lose. It adds that some Yahoo employees were upset by that decision.<\/p>\n
The whistleblower Edward Snowden, who previously revealed details about the US’s cyber-spying efforts, has tweeted in response to the unverified allegations: “Use @Yahoo? They secretly scanned everything you ever wrote… close your account today.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yahoo secretly scanned millions of its users’ email accounts on behalf of the US government, according to a report. Reuters news agency says the firm built special software last year to comply with a classified request. “Yahoo is a law abiding company, and complies with the laws of the United States,” the tech firm said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[12301,4030,12302],"class_list":["post-254950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-email-scan","tag-foreign-news","tag-yahoo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=254950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=254950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=254950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=254950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}