By Robert McMillan

Yahoo Inc. on Wednesday asked U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to allow the company to shed more light on information gathering it is doing for the government.

In a letter, Yahoo General Counsel Ron Bell called on Mr. Clapper to declassify information relating to an order that reportedly prompted a widespread data gathering effort at the internet company. The letter, dated Wednesday, was posted to Yahoo's website.

Yahoo is looking to assuage users following media reports earlier this month which said the company was scanning emails to ferret out information for government intelligence officials.

As described by Reuters, the system was able to scan all incoming emails. That would be an unprecedented surveillance capability, said Alex Abdo, a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

Yahoo criticized the Reuters article as "misleading," and said the email gathering system the article describes "does not exist." But because details of government surveillance systems are often classified or protected by court order, Yahoo appears to be unable to fully describe the situation.

"Yahoo was mentioned specifically in these reports and we find ourselves unable to respond in detail," Mr. Bell wrote.

Mr. Abdo applauded Yahoo's decision to press for more disclosure. "The companies are in a bind because the government subjects them to sweeping surveillance orders and prevents them from speaking about the surveillance," he said.

Representatives from Mr. Clapper's office didn't immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Two weeks ago, a spokesman declined to discuss the methods that the intelligence community uses to collect data. This "activity is narrowly focused on specific foreign intelligence targets and does not involve bulk collection or use generic key words or phrases, " he said via email.

Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 19, 2016 18:48 ET (22:48 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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