Yahoo pushes US govt. to allow revealing details of 'snoop-data requests'

Yahoo is pushing US government to allow full disclosure of the 'snoop-data requests' by the security agencies and has reportedly begun legal action for the demand.

The US internet giant recently published its first government transparency report and revealed that government requested user data of 40,332 accounts over the first six months of 2013.

According to the BBC, the US' Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) law prohibits organisations from providing a breakdown of these figures.

However, Yahoo said that withholding such information from the public breeds mistrust and suspicion about the US government.

The internet giant's lawyer Ron Bell said that the company has filed the lawsuit because it is not authorised at present to break out the number of requests, if any, that they receive for user data under specific national security statutes.

Bell further said that the US government's important responsibility to protect public safety can be carried out without precluding internet companies from sharing the number of national security requests they may receive.

Of the total data requests that Yahoo received, it declined to 2 percent of them and has assured that it will be publishing such transparency reports every six months, the report added.