MANILA, Philippines – Following user data request disclosures by Microsoft, Facebook, and Apple, Yahoo has also come out with its statement on consumer privacy concerns, revealing the general numbers regarding data requests the company has received from law enforcement agencies in the United States.

Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo!, and Ron Bell, general counsel, wrote an announcement on Yahoo! Tumblr page, disclosing how many user data requests were made by US law enforcement agencies to the company between Dec 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013.

Between 12,000 and 13,000 requests were made during that time period. Sadly, these numbers were “inclusive of criminal, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and other requests,” and do not break down the information requests by various variables, such as by the type of request.

The requests primarily dealt with investigations for fraud, homicides, kidnappings, and other criminal activities.

Previously, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook came out with statements requesting that the US government allow for better openness and transparency with regard to these requests in an effort to maintain public trust following Edward Snowden’s revelations on the web data gathering program called PRISM. – Rappler.com