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Yahoo Inc. reportedly built a program allowing the U.S. government to scan millions of customers’ emails for a specific phrase last year, raising questions in the tech industry about why Yahoo didn’t fight the demand.
--UNMITIGATED FURY!: Privacy advocates were quick to register outrage after a report published Tuesday revealed that Yahoo developed software to help U.S. intelligence search its customers' incoming emails. "If true, the government's directive to Yahoo to write a software program and search all of its customers' incoming emails for certain content is a gross abuse of federal power," Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said in a statement. "Private sector companies and private citizens are not an arm of law enforcement or an extension of our intelligence agencies." Sen.
Yahoo built custom software for U.S. intelligence agencies last year so the agencies could scan customers' incoming email for specific information.
According to an Oct. 4 report from Reuters, two former employees of the company and a third person familiar with the activity said Yahoo built the program in response to a request from either the FBI or the National Security Agency to comply with a classified U.S. government directive sent to the company's legal team.
Yahoo’s trust with users is damaged today by a Reuters report that claims the company developed a custom program to search all users’ incoming email for specific queries given by U.S. intelligence officials.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Washington - Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D | Los Angeles County) issued the following statement in light of the news that Yahoo, at the request of the NSA or the FBI, searched hundreds of millions of private emails.
Donald Trump has continued to say he would never take the nuclear option off the table. For example, he told Bloomberg: "I'm never going to rule anything out."
Comments like that make people — including Congressman Ted Lieu — a little worried about what Trump would do with a big, red nuclear button.
"Whether you supported Obama or McCain or Romney or Bush, you didn't think they were crazy," Lieu said when he sat down with Newsy.
Reservations are growing within the Obama administration about American military involvement in Saudi Arabia’s air campaign in Yemen, as some lawmakers and human rights groups charge the United States with responsibility for Saudi attacks that have killed large numbers of civilians.
START YOUR LAME-DUCK BUCKET LISTS — Congress is once again going into hibernation, leaving a robust to-do list for the post-election, lame-duck scramble. While cyber won’t feature much into that equation, here are a few things to watch for in the final weeks of the year.
To intercept calls to the U.S. Secret Service, The New York Times, or Donald Trump’s campaign office, all you need is an online map service.
During the first presidential debate on Monday, Congressman Ted Lieu (D-Los Angeles) didn’t like what he heard from Republican nominee Donald Trump on nuclear weapons. The congressman said he is worried that Trump, if elected, will have the power to launch a nuclear strike.
On Tuesday, Lieu and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) introduced the First Use of Nuclear Weapons Act, which would require Congress to declare war before the president can authorize the use of nuclear weapons.