We know who the wimps are. Feminist Yahoo CEO fears defying NSA could mean prison.

[Conrad Moeller]

SAN FRANCISCO – Yahoo chief Marissa Mayer said she feared
winding up in prison for treason if she refused to comply with
U.S. spy demands for data.

Her comments came after being asked what she is doing to protect
Yahoo users from "tyrannical government" during an on-stage
interview Wednesday afternoon at a TechCrunch Disrupt conference
in San Francisco.

Mayer said Yahoo scrutinizes and fights U.S. government data
requests stamped with the authority of a Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court, but when the company loses battles it must
do as directed or risk being branded a traitor.

Data requests authorized by the court come with an order barring
anyone at the company receiving the request from disclosing
anything about them, even their existence.

"If you don't comply, it is treason," Mayer said when asked why
she couldn't just spill details of requests by U.S. spy agencies
for information about Yahoo users.

"We can't talk about it because it is classified," she
continued. "Releasing classified information is treason, and you
are incarcerated. In terms of protecting our users, it makes
more sense to work within the system."

Yahoo, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are among Internet firms
pushing for permission to disclose more details to users about
demands for data made in the name of fighting terrorism or other
threats.

Technology titans have been eager to bolster the trust of its
users by making it clearer what has actually been demanded by
and disclosed to U.S. authorities.

"It is our government's job to protect all of us and also
protect our freedoms and protect the economy and protect
companies," said Facebook co-founder and chief Mark Zuckerberg
said at TechCrunch Disrupt on Wednesday.

"Frankly, I think the government blew it."

U.S. intelligence officials declassified documents Tuesday
revealing the National Security Agency violated privacy rules
for three years when it sifted through phone records of
Americans with no suspected links to terrorists.

The revelations raised fresh questions about the NSA's ability
to manage the massive amount of data it collects and whether the
U.S. government is able to safeguard the privacy of its citizens.

The government was forced to disclose the documents by a judge's
order after a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit group promoting
digital privacy rights and free speech.

The foundation called the release of the documents a "victory"
for transparency but intelligence officials said the papers
illustrated how the spy service had made unintentional
"mistakes" that were rectified under strict judicial oversight.

The release came after the scale of NSA spying was exposed in a
series of bombshell media leaks in recent months by former U.S.
intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been granted
temporary asylum in Russia.

Documents divulged by Snowden have shown the NSA conducts a
massive electronic dragnet, including trawling through phone
records and online traffic, that has sometimes flouted privacy
laws.

The declassified documents released on Tuesday shed light on
friction between the NSA and the court, with judges castigating
the agency for failing to abide by their orders and
misrepresenting the nature of their data collection.

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