According to the documents, Washington threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it refused to hand over user communications in the name of national security.
The NSA’s controversial Prism surveillance program was revealed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden last year. Yahoo officials refused to hand over the data of its users to the NSA. The case was then taken to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Yahoo's court challenge failed and the company ultimately handed over the data to the spy agency. “The released documents underscore how we had to fight every step of the way to challenge the US government’s surveillance efforts,” Yahoo general counsel Ron Bell said in a blog post.
"We refused to comply with what we viewed as unconstitutional and overbroad surveillance and challenged the US government's authority," he said. "At one point, the US government threatened the imposition of $250,000 in fines per day if we refused to comply," Bell revealed.
Snowden, a former NSA employee, began leaking classified intelligence documents in June 2013, revealing the extent of the NSA's spying activities. He revealed that the spy agency has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans and foreign nationals as well as political leaders around the world.
