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Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

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Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#21

Post by idlewords »

DubiousPusher wrote: post #11

I think the attitude here that most tech companies are rolling over and just complying without a single ethical consideration is misplaced. The government has been doing an excellent job of basically extorting these companies into compliance. They threaten the full weight of the US government's wraith and then tie every order up with classifications and gag orders. You aren't legally allowed to talk to other companie…

The most damning part of this story is that Mayer decided to comply without telling her chief security officer. That really does make it look like Yahoo rolled over without a fight.

Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#22

Post by rdl »

I was honestly a bit unhappy when Stamos left Yahoo in the middle of a bunch of (what seemed like) cool projects for users -- seemed like he was just jumping ship from an objectively pretty crappy company to a continuing-to-accelerate rocketship, presumably for career reasons.

However, if it went down like this -- he did probably the least destructive thing possible. I probably would have gone public or done something stupider, but at the very least not being a party to ongoing abuse of users' trust is necessary.

I'd like to see what other senior execs at Yahoo! were aware of the program and supported or at least tolerated it, so I can avoid ever working with any of them.

Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#23

Post by rudolf0 »

greenyoda wrote: post #8
mtgx wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like she was a pretty terrible CEO all-around. But as a user, I would never use a service run by Marissa Mayer again. She lost that trust for good.

I'm not a fan of Mayer's, but sounds like she didn't want to fight the order since that hadn't worked in the past: "Yahoo in 2007 had fought a FISA demand that it conduct searches on specific email accounts without a court-approved warrant. Details of the case remain sealed, but a partially redacted published opinion showed Yahoo's challenge was unsuccessful." Her real mistake was going directly to the e-mail team to…

Good on Stamos for leaving.

Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#25

Post by rudolf0 »

kefka wrote: post #15

Lets take it a different way: You're knowingly sending your data to a 3rd party. You're not encrypting. It's not through the USPS (special protections). It seems bloody evident that, of course, your email provider can read your emails! Unless you're encrypting with GPG, then they can (and they can still read the signing keys). Yahoo, Google, and friends all scan, dedup, and all sorts of tricks to determine marketing…

Yes, but there's a huge difference between a computer "seeing" your email and a human being searching for keywords within your email to decide whether or not to follow you around and/or arrest you.

This report isn't complaining about unencrypted emails. It's about them giving an intelligence agency the equivalent of a `grep "terrorism" | tail -f` for all their users' email. Without a warrant. (Not that a warrant could even be granted for something so broad, anyway.)

Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#26

Post by panarky »

rhino369 wrote: post #16
vermontdevil wrote: post #3

Now gotta wonder if Google has succumbed to government pressure to do the same. I'm really hoping and trusting they haven't.

It's not just pressure, it's an order by government. Court orders aren't really optional. And as much as you might think this is a huge problem, it's a bigger problem with companies aren't restrained by government orders. Imagine if Exceleon politely declined to allow nuclear inspections.

There is almost always a choice.

Exhibit 1: http://www.apple.com/customer-letter/

Exhibit 2: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/technology/23google.html

Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#28

Post by draw_down »

mtgx wrote: post #4
jonknee wrote: post #2

It sounds like Yahoo will fit right in at Verizon... It also sounds like another leak designed to damage Marissa Mayer: > According to the two former employees, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's decision to obey the directive roiled some senior executives and led to the June 2015 departure of Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos, who now holds the top security job at Facebook Inc.

Sounds like she was a pretty terrible CEO all-around. But as a user, I would never use a service run by Marissa Mayer again. She lost that trust for good.

Sure, but it's not like they had a non-terrible CEO in... ever? I'm not sure actually.

Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#29

Post by lallysingh »

MrZongle2 wrote: post #6
vermontdevil wrote: post #3

Now gotta wonder if Google has succumbed to government pressure to do the same. I'm really hoping and trusting they haven't.

Considering the amount of access they have to the White House: why would you assume that they haven't ?

The white house is above the NSA and FBI, so wouldn't access to their bosses preclude them being coerced?

Re: Yahoo scanned customer emails for US intelligence

#30

Post by finid »

vermontdevil wrote: post #3

Now gotta wonder if Google has succumbed to government pressure to do the same. I'm really hoping and trusting they haven't.

At this point, it's save to assume that NSA/FBI/CIA/Pentagon has front door access to Google.

That cheap-oil-for-your-private-planes deal with Pentagon is one small evidence [1]. The other is Matt Cutts working for (on a temporary basis) the Defense Department's branch of USDS [2]

[1]: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014241278873238646045790697...

[2]: http://fedscoop.com/former-google-spam-chief-heads-to-usds

As for Microsoft, well, no debate there.

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