Yahoo e-mail scan report raises rights concerns: UN expert

Yahoo Mail logo is displayed on a smartphone's screen in front of a code in this illustration taken in October 6, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

FRANKFURT: Serious human rights concerns have been raised by a Reuters report that Yahoo had scanned the e-mails of hundreds of millions of users at the request of a US intelligence service, a United Nations' human rights advocate said. 

"Government monitoring of digital communications, when conducted as described in recent reports, could undermine the privacy that individuals depend on in order to seek, receive and impart information online," David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, said in a statement.