Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), the UK government can force UK-based service providers to turn over data from their servers. Ireland, however, operates under European data privacy laws, not the UK‘s, which would theoretically help Yahoo hold onto its customers‘ data.

The potential loss of a large data source seems to have touched off a mini-panic within the intelligence community, which strongly suggested UK Home Secretary Theresa May take the internet company aside and discuss „security concerns.“