Yahoo Sues NSA For Greater Transparency To Inform Users

Yesterday, the Guardian UK reported that Yahoo had filed a lawsuit against the National Security Agency (NSA) to be allowed to to inform users about the data requests it receives from the government:

"Withholding the information creates mistrust, Yahoo said. Companies are forbidden by law to say how much data they provide."

Withholding information also harms companies, as Yahoo said in a statement:

"Yahoo's inability to respond to news reports has harmed its reputation and has undermined its business not only in the United States but worldwide. Yahoo cannot respond to such reports with mere generalities."

Google also has also filed a motion to be allowed to report more freely. This is a start. I wish that more companies had done this far sooner... years ago. As I warned in an earlier blog post, this massive surveillance hurts American companies directly and worldwide -- revenues, and later jobs. To assume or pretend otherwise is simply foolish and bad policy.