As the fallout from the revelations of Prism continues, Yahoo is gaining ground in its efforts to prove it resisted government efforts to access its users' data.
According to The Daily Dot, the internet firm won a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court order today that will require the U.S. Department of Justice to reveal classified court documents from 2008.
The documents, Yahoo claims, prove it resisted another FISA court order to turn over user data to begin with.
Yahoo said it was "very pleased with the decision" in statement picked up by The Next Web, noting that as the documents are made public, "we believe they will contribute constructively to the ongoing public discussion around online privacy."
Through the looking glass
The DOJ has two weeks to figure out how long it will take to declassify the docs. It can still redact information from the classified info, so we may not get the whole story even after the information is disseminated.
Yahoo, as with other tech companies implicated in Prism, has denied granting the government "direct access" to its servers, systems or networks since word of the program was revealed over one month ago.
In an effort to prove its Prism innocence, Yahoo in June revealed that it's received between 12,000 and 13,000 government requests for user data during the six months previous.
The company also plans to post its inaugural "global law enforcement transparency report" sometime this summer, a report it plans to refresh twice a year.
In addition to its FISA court victory today, Yahoo also received a "gold star" from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a group that works "to protect fundamental rights regardless of technology," according to its website, in its "Who Has Your Back" survey. The accolade comes "for fighting for [Yahoo] users in (secret) courts."
We'll see how far the Prism hole runs, but certainly more revelations from all parties involved will hit the fan before long. Stay tuned.
