October 19, 2016

The Honorable James R. Clapper

Director of National Intelligence

Of?ce of the Director of National Intelligence
Washington, DC 20511

Dear Director Clapper,

I write to you regarding recent media reports stemming from an October 4 Reuters article about an
alleged classified order from the U5. government. At Yahoo, we are deeply committed to transparency
and to protecting the rights of our users. Yahoo was mentioned speci?cally in these reports and we
?nd ourselves unable to respond in detail. Your office, however, is well positioned to clarify this matter
of public interest. Accordingly, we urge your of?ce to consider the following actions to provide clarity
on the matter: con?rm whether an order, as described in these media reports, was issued; (ii)
declassify in whole or in part such order, if it exists; and make a suf?ciently detailed public and
contextual comment to clarify the alleged facts and circumstances.

We appreciate the need for confidentiality in certain aspects of investigations involving public safety or
national security; however, transparency is critical to ensure accountability and in this context must
include disclosing how and under what set of circumstances the U.S. government uses speci?c legal
authorities, including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, to obtain private information about
individuals' online activities or communications. Citizens in a democracy require such information to
understand and debate the appropriateness of such authorities and how the government employs
them.

As you know, Yahoo consistently campaigns for government transparency about national security
requests and for the right to share the number and nature of the requests we receive from all
governments. We apply a principled approach to handling government requests for user data,
including in the national security context, articulated in our publicly-available Global Principles for
Responding to Government Requests and regular transparency reports. Our company not only
embraces its privacy and human rights responsibilities, we do so enthusiastically, passionately, and
with a deep sense of global and moral responsibility. But tranSparency is not merely a Yahoo issue:
Transparency underpins the ability ofa_ny company in the information and communications technology
sector to earn and preserve the trust of its customers. Erosion of that trust online implicates the safety
and security of people around the world and diminishes con?dence and trust in U.S. businesses at
home and beyond our borders.

Recent news stories have provoked broad speculation about Yahoo?s approach and about the activities
and representations of the U.S. government, including those made by the Government in connection
with negotiating Privacy Shield with the European Union. That speculation results in part from lack of
transparency and because US. laws signi?cantly constrain?and severely punish?companies? ability to

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speak for themselves about national security related orders even in ways that do not compromise U.S.
government investigations.

We trust that the U.S. government recognizes the importance of clarifying the record in this case. On
behalf of Yahoo and our global community of users, I respectfully request that the Of?ce of the
Director of National Intelligence expeditiously clarify this matter.

Sincerely,

Mikael?

Ron Bell
General Counsel
Yahoo