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 8 3 2 13 13
Australia 76 16 25 117 131
Austria 0 18 1 19 20
Belgium 0 8 2 10 16
Brazil 129 80 33 242 355
Canada 24 7 2 33 83
Denmark 0 0 1 1 1
France 156 132 80 368 459
Germany 927 697 310 1,934 2,177
Greece 0 12 1 13 20
Hong Kong 0 16 1 17 17
Hungary 0 5 1 6 6
India 214 148 56 418 491
Ireland 22 4 2 28 62
Israel 0 1 0 1 1
Italy 17 77 27 121 202
Latvia 0 0 1 1 1
Malta 0 5 0 5 7
Mexico 1 1 0 2 2
New Zealand 5 1 0 6 8
North Macedonia 0 2 0 2 2
Norway 0 2 0 2 2
Poland 0 12 0 12 16
Portugal 0 1 0 1 1
Romania 0 7 0 7 13
Serbia 0 1 2 3 3
Singapore 6 2 3 11 14
Spain 43 94 35 172 189
Switzerland 0 16 2 18 19
Taiwan 316 118 38 472 1,189
United Kingdom 484 350 125 959 1,091
United States* 4,046 300 638 4,984 44,458
Global Total 6,474 2,136 1,388 9,998 51,069

*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
Bulgaria 1 1 100%
Canada 13 14 85%
Denmark 2 2 50%
Ecuador 1 2 0%
Finland 2 3 50%
France 9 12 56%
Germany 18 22 67%
Greece 6 6 50%
Hungary 2 2 0%
India 6 7 83%
Israel 1 1 0%
Latvia 3 4 0%
Malta 2 2 100%
Netherlands 1 1 100%
Poland 2 3 100%
Romania 1 1 0%
Serbia 3 3 67%
Singapore 1 1 100%
Spain 1 1 100%
Sweden 2 2 50%
Switzerland 1 1 100%
United Kingdom 37 39 57%
United States 112 13 57%
Global Total 227 143

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 1 1
Austria 15 15
Brazil 7 20
Canada 13 14
Finland 2 6
France 6 6
Germany 34 74
Ireland 14 18
Italy 6 10
Poland 1 2
Slovenia 3 3
Spain 3 3
Sweden 2 2
United Kingdom 18 29
United States 1,804 3,774
Global Total 1,929 3,977

Download Data for this Reporting Period: CSV