Yahoo has called on the US government to explain why it compelled the company to scan millions of its users’ email accounts. Yahoo’s call, outlined in a letter published on Wednesday, comes after a report from Reuters showed that the web company built a powerful surveillance system that scanned all incoming emails for a specific string of characters. Yahoo built the system at the request of the US government in 2015, according to Reuters.

In a letter to James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, Yahoo’s general counsel, Ron Bell, called on the government to clarify the “national security orders they issue to internet companies to obtain user data.”  The company said that although the letter references allegations made against…

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