USA: UN rights expert troubled by allegations that Yahoo complied with surveillance demands
GENEVA (7 October 2016) – Reports that Yahoo complied with US intelligence demands by searching the e-mails of hundreds
of millions of customers raise serious human rights concerns, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to
freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, said today.
According to reports, Yahoo customized software to scan all incoming email traffic for information responsive to
criteria provided by the US National Security Agency or the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“Government monitoring of digital communications, when conducted as described in recent reports, could undermine the
privacy that individuals depend on in order to seek, receive and impart information online,” the expert stressed. “Based
on the allegations reported, I have serious concerns that the alleged surveillance fails to meet the standards of
necessity and proportionality for the protection of legitimate government interests.”
In a 2013 report to the UN Human Rights Council on communications surveillance, the previous special rapporteur, Frank
La Rue, concluded that government “access to communications data held by domestic corporate actors should only be sought
in circumstances where other available less invasive techniques have been exhausted.”*
“Yahoo’s apparent accession to government surveillance requests, without evident legal challenge, also raises concern
about the involvement of technology companies in questionable government programs that impact freedom of expression,”
Mr. Kaye added, recalling his June 2016 report on the private sector and freedom of expression in the digital age. **
“States place undeniable pressures on the private information and communication technology sector that often lead to
serious restrictions on the freedom of expression,” the 2016 report stated. Mr. Kaye reemphasised that companies in all
areas of the industry “are capable of establishing and exercising varying degrees of leverage in their relationships
with States to resist or mitigate the harm caused by abusive application of the law.”
“Private entities should be evaluated on the steps they take both to promote and undermine freedom of expression, even
in hostile environments unfriendly to human rights,” his report also highlighted.
(*) See the Special Rapporteur’s report on communications surveillance: http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session23/A.HRC.23.40_EN.pdf
(**) See the Special Rapporteur’s report on the private sector and freedom of expression in the digital age: http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?si=A/HRC/32/38
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