Yahoo India has challenged a Rs 11 lakh fine imposed on it by the Indian government, because it refused to share profile details of certain email ID's that the Home Ministry had requested, reports the Times of India. We've requested Yahoo India for a copy of its petition (no information is available on the Delhi High Court's website), but the reports suggests that Yahoo has challenged the government for bypassing legal procedures under the cloak of National Security, and trying to coerce information from it, by bypassing confidenciatlity agreements. The next hearing of the case is the 9th of January 2012. It's interesting to see Yahoo challenging the orders in court, while Google disclosed a 70% compliance with government requests. A few things to keep in mind: 1. Precedence setting: We don't know if Yahoo is challenging primarily because of the fine, but this could set a precedence for online privacy and the procedure that the government needs to follow for acquiring user specific information. So far, it appears that intermediaries have been compliant. If you're aware of any other such instances of government requests for user information being challenged, do let us know. 2. Immediacy of requirement: Sometimes the information required by government bodies is time sensitive - for example, they might want to monitor an account that is believed to be being used to plot terrorist attacks. In that case, going through a formal procedure might take too much time, which is why the government also wants real-time…
