Marissa Mayer—Approved NSA email scanning program, causing security chief to resign in protest
In 2015, Mayer and Yahoo General Counsel approved a classified government order under FISA Section 702 to build custom software scanning millions of Yahoo Mail accounts in real-time for the NSA/FBI. Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos resigned in June 2015 when he discovered the program, initially believing it was a hack. Mayer stated publicly that revealing such programs would be 'treason' and executives 'could go to prison.'
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Whistleblower Protection | -against | secondary | -0.50 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.483 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.57)× agency (reactive ×0.75)
Evidence (1 signal)
Approved NSA email scanning program, causing security chief to resign in protest
In 2015, Mayer and Yahoo General Counsel approved a classified government order under FISA Section 702 to build custom software scanning millions of Yahoo Mail accounts in real-time for the NSA/FBI. Chief Information Security Officer Alex Stamos resigned in June 2015 when he discovered the program, initially believing it was a hack. Mayer stated publicly that revealing such programs would be 'treason' and executives 'could go to prison.'