Government Data Requests

Governments around the world request information about Yahoo users, usually in conjunction with criminal or civil investigations. We carefully scrutinize each request to make sure it complies with the law, and we push back on those requests that don’t satisfy our rigorous standards. When we disclose data, consistent with our Global Principles for Responding to Government Requests, we narrowly interpret the request and disclose only as much data as is necessary to comply with the request.

Country Some data disclosed Rejected No data found Total government data requests Total government specified accounts
Argentina 3 2 1 6 6
Australia 114 58 20 192 206
Austria 0 11 2 13 13
Belgium 0 7 3 10 11
Brazil 143 79 40 262 402
Bulgaria 0 1 0 1 1
Canada 32 17 3 52 64
Cyprus 0 1 0 1 0
Czech Republic 0 2 0 2 3
Denmark 0 2 0 2 2
France 132 97 68 297 325
Germany 702 543 287 1,532 1,958
Greece 0 19 2 21 25
Hong Kong 0 16 1 17 17
Hungary 0 2 0 2 2
India 189 159 35 383 464
Ireland 15 8 0 23 23
Italy 10 57 13 80 144
Latvia 0 1 0 1 1
Lithuania 0 2 1 3 3
Malta 0 5 0 5 6
Mexico 3 0 2 5 5
New Zealand 6 1 0 7 12
Poland 0 7 0 7 8
Portugal 0 4 0 4 4
Puerto Rico 1 0 0 1 1
Romania 0 13 4 17 54
Serbia 0 6 1 7 7
Singapore 14 5 4 23 24
Spain 53 86 34 173 207
Switzerland 0 6 5 11 12
Taiwan 285 145 32 462 1,104
Ukraine 0 1 0 1 1
United Kingdom 538 405 215 1,158 1,312
United States* 4,580 316 720 5,616 13,353
Global Total 6,820 2,084 1,493 10,397 19,780

*These numbers do not include U.S. national security requests reported in more detail on the U.S.-specific page. 

Emergency requests

In addition to Government Data Requests, Yahoo sometimes receives requests from governments seeking information in emergency situations (i.e., the disclosure of information is sought to save a life or prevent serious physical harm). The chart below represents the number of such requests that Yahoo received globally during the reporting period, the number of accounts specified in those requests, and the percentage of the requests that resulted in the disclosure of some information.

Country Total requests Total government specified accounts Percentage of requests resulting in disclosure of user data
Australia 1 1 0%
Austria 2 2 50%
Canada 20 24 65%
France 7 17 29%
Germany 13 14 62%
Greece 4 4 50%
India 3 3 33%
Netherlands 2 2 100%
New Zealand 1 1 100%
Norway 2 2 50%
Philippines 1 1 100%
Poland 4 4 75%
Romania 2 2 0%
Serbia 4 4 25%
Singapore 1 1 0%
Sweden 1 1 0%
Switzerland 3 3 100%
United Kingdom 35 35 66%
United States 112 122 51%
Global Total 218 243

Preservation requests

Government agencies sometimes ask Yahoo to temporarily preserve account information pertaining to an investigation while they work to obtain valid legal process. When we receive a preservation request issued in accordance with applicable law, we will temporarily preserve the relevant user data, to the extent it is available. We will not disclose information until the government agency has presented us with valid legal process. The chart below shows the number of preservation requests we received within this reporting period, as well as the number of accounts specified in those requests. If information we preserved is subsequently sought by the government agency with legal process, the request (and our response) will be reflected as Government Data Request in the reporting period during which the request was made.

Country Total preservation requests Total government specified accounts
Australia 4 4
Austria 3 3
Brazil 8 10
Canada 11 13
Denmark 2 2
Finland 2 3
France 24 29
Germany 110 130
Greece 2 2
Hungary 2 2
Ireland 24 24
Italy 8 12
Poland 7 7
Romania 3 6
Spain 5 5
Switzerland 2 2
United Kingdom 13 20
United States 1,993 4,152
Global Total 2,223 4,426

Download Data for this Reporting Period: CSV