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 of ce 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 701 First Avenue Sunnyvale CA 94089 P 408 349 3300 F 408 349 3301 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