Yahoo was told to give user data to U.S. government, or face $250,000-a-day fine


Court documents unsealed on Thursday revealed that in 2008, the U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day if the company did not give up user communications.
In a statement, Yahoo said it was "required to assist the U.S. government in acquiring foreign intelligence information through the surveillance of targets reasonably believed to be located outside the United States." The company refused, arguing it was unconstitutional and violated users' Fourth Amendment rights. The government took its case to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which ruled that Yahoo needed to comply. The company was threatened with the $250,000 daily fine after it decided to file an appeal, but then began to cooperate while still fighting; Yahoo later lost the appeal.
This decision, The Washington Post reports, was a "key moment" in the development of PRISM, the program that gave the NSA broad authority to obtain data from tech giants like Facebook and Google through secret court orders. Through PRISM, the NSA was able to gather more than 250 million communications in 2011 alone.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
The mounting tensions between Thailand and Cambodia
The Explainer Long-running border disputes are at a decade high, as protesters in Thailand demand the prime minister's resignation
-
The unravelling of 'trolls' paradise' Tattle Life
In the Spotlight Unmasking of founder sends shockwaves through toxic gossip forum
-
Sudoku medium: June 30, 2025
The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Canadian man dies in ICE custody
Speed Read A Canadian citizen with permanent US residency died at a federal detention center in Miami
-
GOP races to revise megabill after Senate rulings
Speed Read A Senate parliamentarian ruled that several changes to Medicaid included in Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" were not permissible
-
Supreme Court lets states ax Planned Parenthood funds
Speed Read The court ruled that Planned Parenthood cannot sue South Carolina over the state's effort to deny it funding
-
Trump plans Iran talks, insists nuke threat gone
Speed Read 'The war is done' and 'we destroyed the nuclear,' said President Trump
-
Trump embraces NATO after budget vow, charm offensive
Speed Read The president reversed course on his longstanding skepticism of the trans-Atlantic military alliance
-
Trump judge pick told DOJ to defy courts, lawyer says
Speed Read Emil Bove, a top Justice Department official nominated by Trump for a lifetime seat, stands accused of encouraging government lawyers to mislead the courts and defy judicial orders
-
Mamdani upsets Cuomo in NYC mayoral primary
Speed Read Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani beat out Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary
-
Supreme Court clears third-country deportations
Speed Read The court allowed Trump to temporarily resume deporting migrants to countries they aren't from