By Brett Illers, Program Manager, Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
Late last week, President Trump initiated a U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, resulting in a lot of speculation about the implications for the global effort to combat climate change. One thing, however, remains unchanged: Yahoo’s commitment to continue to reduce its own carbon footprint.
In a letter to President Trump today, we joined nearly 1,000 other entities–U.S. companies, cities, counties, states and academic institutions–in reiterating our commitment to the benchmarks set out in the Paris Agreement. No matter the administration or policy, we agree with the data that shows a causal relationship between human carbon emissions and the rise in global temperatures.
For this reason, we’ve set out to be transparent about our carbon emissions data, advocate for smart energy policies and develop innovative solutions to achieve more efficient, sustainable business operations. And our efforts don’t go unnoticed – we consistently earn high marks from nonprofit reporting agencies like the Climate Disclosure Project.
At the center of this effort are our data centers. By and large they are our greatest producers of carbon, however, we’ve taken great strides to keep them operating efficiently and with renewable sources of energy. It’s a point of pride for the many Yahoos who work to keep our networks and platforms powered for our more than 1 billion active users 24/7, 365 days a year.
What does one of the most efficient data centers in the world look like? Our patented chicken coop design has allowed for best in class energy and water efficiency, including a 75% reduction in cooling energy compared to a typical data center design. We boast this technology at some of our largest data center locations, including in Lockport, New York and Quincy, Washington.
Combined with other companywide campaigns to keep our business’s
carbon footprint as low impact as possible, as well as our philosophical
stance of placing high value on our limited natural resources, our
position is clear: Yahoo stands by the Paris Agreement.
By Chris Madsen, Assistant General Counsel, Head of Global Law Enforcement, Security and Safety
Today we released the latest update to our biannual transparency report. We are sharing the number of government requests we received globally for user information, as well as government requests to remove content, during the second half of 2016.
In this reporting period, we received a total of 11,247 data requests from governments worldwide. All requests for the latest reporting period are accounted for here.
As with past updates, we’ve provided the number of National Security Letters (NSLs) that Yahoo received during the reporting period and the number of accounts that were specified in those NSLs. These numbers generally are reported in bands of 500, starting with 0 - 499, as this is the maximum amount of detail that Yahoo may provide under U.S. law when reporting NSLs in aggregate.
However, with the enactment of the USA Freedom Act, the FBI must now periodically assess whether a NSL’s nondisclosure requirement is still appropriate, and to lift it when it’s not. Since our last update in October 2016, the FBI has lifted the nondisclosure requirement with respect to additional NSLs to Yahoo (which are substantively similar to the NSLs we publicly disclosed in June 2016). Specifically, the lower end of the band has been adjusted for the following reporting periods to reflect the fact that we can now legally disclose having received particular NSLs during those periods: July - December 2014, January - June 2015, July - December 2015 and January - June 2016.
We remain unwavering in our commitment to carefully scrutinize government requests for user data and content removal consistent with our Global Principles for Responding to Government Requests and with the Global Network Initiative Principles, and we continue to engage with governments and key stakeholders to advocate for the ability to provide more transparency around government requests.
By Chris Madsen, Assistant General Counsel, Head of Global Law Enforcement, Security, and Safety
Today we’re announcing that we filed an amicus brief in Google’s appeal of a Magistrate Judge’s ruling requiring Google to produce private customer communications stored outside of the United States in response to a warrant. As stated in our brief, the ruling conflicts with the Stored Communications Act (SCA) and Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 (Rule 41), and it creates a conflict with the Second Circuit’s decision from July 2016 regarding a similar warrant served on Microsoft.
Yahoo supported Google in this case because we also offer our products and services to customers around the world using a network of servers, some of which are located outside of the U.S. By departing from well-established precedent concerning overseas searches and failing to apply the SCA and Rule 41 as written, the Magistrate Judge’s ruling makes it difficult for Yahoo and other providers to understand when it must produce private customer data residing on a server outside of the United States to law enforcement in response to a warrant.
At Yahoo, we are committed to transparency and enabling users to understand how we handle their personal information, especially in the face of law enforcement and government requests. We hope that our brief contributes to the conversation about the proper reach of the SCA and Rule 41 warrants, and persuades the District Court to reject the Magistrate Judge’s ruling. However this particular case is resolved, it highlights the need for Congress, not the Courts, to address any perceived defect or shortcoming in the SCA and Rule 41.
By Brett Illers, Program Manager, Energy Efficiency & Sustainability
In an effort to continue to support advocacy issues around sustainability and the future of internet power, Yahoo is pleased to announce that we’ve joined other industry leaders in signing the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Colocation Buyers Principles.
As a signatory to these principles, Yahoo will work with our current and future colocated data center landlords to push for greater transparency around use, efficiency and renewable energy commitment within their facilities.
At Yahoo, we’re committed to “greening the internet,” and this is an important effort as part of our overall sustainability strategy. More information on BSR’s efforts can be found here.
By Margenett Moore-Roberts, Global Head of Inclusive Diversity
Last week, Yahoo and Tumblr came out against a joint decision from the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education to rescind critical legal guidance protecting transgender students in educational settings. Previous guidance required schools to allow transgender students to use sex-segregated facilities, like bathrooms and locker rooms, based on gender identity rather than biological sex.
Yahoo and Tumblr today join a number of other companies on an amicus brief in G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board, a case alleging that forbidding a male transgender student from using the boy’s restroom at his school constitutes discrimination on the basis of sex and therefore violates Title IX of the Education Act of 1972, which bars sex discrimination in education.
This case isn’t only about bathroom access; it is about equal rights. Having built inclusive workplaces for transgender employees and their loved ones, we have a vested interest in the legal landscape in which our employees and their dependents live, work and go to school.
Yahoo and Tumblr have long expressed commitment to LGBTQ diversity and inclusion in our workforces and invest in the practice of inclusive diversity to ensure we are supporting and incorporating the broadest set of perspectives throughout our corporate community. We realize being inclusive is not only the right thing to do – it makes good business sense as well. We believe the perspective of the LGBTQ community enriches and strengthens our collective corporate perspective. We value these contributions and will continue to speak out against actions that jeopardize equal rights for the LGBTQ, and other underrepresented, communities.
Yahoo is proud to accept this year’s award for Best Place to Work in Omaha. Announced today by the Omaha Chamber of Commerce, we earned the top spot among numerous other large companies (200 employees or more) in the region. The award is determined exclusively based on employee responses to surveys and participation in the Chamber’s program for at least four years.
Since Yahoo opened its doors in Omaha and neighboring La Vista, we’ve strived to create an engaging and inclusive work culture for our employees. Combined, our Omaha and La Vista campuses now boast more than 300 employees and are still growing.
Within our office, employees are able to focus on and excel at the work that inspires them. This is in part due to our creative and fun work space, a mentality to always find ways to do things smarter, better, faster, and a commitment to finding career opportunities.
Our work to foster employee development is not limited to Yahoo’s offices. We also keep our eye on the future with regard to new talent – and with a community focus. Just this last year, Yahoo Omaha invited the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the University of Nebraska at Omaha to compete in our first-annual Yahoo Advertising Knock-out Challenge. This was a unique opportunity to match university programs with our marketing needs for talent development. And we’ve started a growing internship program, which will include at least 17 summer interns this year alone.
Coupled with our employees’ ongoing engagement with the community and an expanding data center operation at our La Vista campus, it’s clear we think Omaha and all of Nebraska continue to be an exceptional place to grow our business. Or as we like to call it: home.
As the Chamber of Commerce likes to describe this award, “Best Places to Work” honors superior organizations where voices are heard, cultures are thriving and employees are engaged.” We couldn’t agree more with this philosophy and dedicate this award to the employees who make Yahoo Omaha what it is: this year’s “Best Place to Work.”
Yahoo has and always will recognize the inalienable right to equality for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender expression. The action taken by the Administration is troubling and goes against all that we believe in.
Yahoo and Tumblr announced today that they’ve joined a number of companies as amici in Darweesh v. Trump, a New York federal case challenging President Trump’s January 27, 2017 immigration-related Executive Order. The Executive Order, implementation of which is currently halted by courts, prohibits citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days and all refugees for 120 days, and indefinitely halts admission of refugees from Syria.
The seven countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Our amicus brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York argues that the Executive Order curtails diversity and harms innovation, impairs amici’s ongoing business operations, and is unconstitutional. A copy of the brief can be found here.
U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly granted a January 28 temporary restraining order in favor of the petitioners in Darweesh. The Judge later extended that order until February 21. The issue now is whether the Court will grant a preliminary injunction further enjoining enforcement of the Executive Order.
While the arguments made in our amicus filing are not dissimilar to others made on the broader issue, the petitioners’ record of service to the United States at great personal risk—one as a nearly 10-year Iraqi translator for the U.S. Army; the other, as a former U.S. contractor in Iraq—make their personal situations particularly compelling and illustrate why classifications based on nationality—such as the Executive Order—are inherently suspect.
Why take a stand on this issue?
Immigrants to the U.S. bring with them immense talent and entrepreneurship that help drive the innovation economy. Yahoo was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo – two Stanford grad students, one from Taiwan and one from Louisiana – so we know firsthand that great things can happen when America welcomes the world’s best and brightest.
Skilled, hardworking people around the world innovate together to make the products Yahoo users love. In the United States alone, our SVP of Advertising and Search emigrated from Chile, our Chief Information Officer from Canada, and our SVP of Publisher Products from Lebanon—and they merely exemplify our multicultural workforce. The power of diversity, enshrined in our corporate history and culture, embodies the diaspora that also underpins and enables the American experience.
Moreover, at Yahoo and Tumblr, we consider technologies and governments most effective when they bridge cultural divides, not enshrine them. We see this demonstrated every day by our more than 1 billion users worldwide and in the disparate views and perspectives to which Tumblr creators and Yahoo commenters lend their voices.
Yahoo and Tumblr consider inclusiveness and diversity essential to recruit, grow, and retain the best talent in the world so we can create the best possible products. We will continue to press for, and collaborate toward, national immigration policies that reflect the open, inclusive foundations on which our businesses—and many others—depend to serve their users, their employees, and their investors.
By Margenett Moore-Roberts, Global Head of Inclusive Diversity
Pay equity is a critical and inextricable component of Yahoo’s mission to build an inclusive and diverse workplace. I am incredibly proud that we have joined more than 100 other companies in signing The White House Equal Pay Pledge.
