Yahoo is now confirming that it too has responded to thousands of requests by the government for user data.

Between Dec. 1, 2012, and May 31, 2013, U.S. law enforcement agencies asked Yahoo for data some 12,000 to 13,000 times.

“The most common of these requests concerned fraud, homicides, kidnappings and other criminal investigations,” according to a recent blog post from Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, and Ron Bell, Yahoo’s general counsel.

Yahoo can’t say how many requests relate to national security.

“Like all companies, Yahoo cannot lawfully break out FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] request numbers at this time because those numbers are classified; however, we strongly urge the federal government to reconsider its stance on this issue,” the blog post added.

“As always, we will continually evaluate whether further actions can be taken to protect the privacy of our users and our ability to defend it.  We appreciate—and do not take for granted—the trust you place in us,” the blog post continued.

Later this summer, Yahoo will issue its first global law enforcement transparency report. 

Twitter, like Yahoo, wants to be able to release numbers of national security requests, according to a report from The BBC.

Google (News - Alert) said placing police requests with national security requests was "a step back for users,” The BBC adds.

News about social media and technology companies and the release of user data to the government has been an issue of concern since The Guardian and The Washington Post newspapers reported about Prism – which gives the National Security Agency (NSA) access to user data. There is also an NSA program which reviews data about phone calls.

The data was from Microsoft (News - Alert), Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL and Apple, news reports said.

Opponents to the program cited privacy and civil liberty concerns, while supporters say it helped to stop terrorism in the United States and in 20 other nations.

At first, tech companies appeared to deny handing data over to the NSA.

Now, Apple said it received between 4,000 and 5,000 requests from government officials between December 2012 and May 2013, The BBC reported. Facebook (News - Alert) got between 9,000 and 10,000 requests between July and December 2012, and Microsoft got between 6,000 and 7,000 requests between July and December 2012.

The NSA's Prism program was revealed by Edward Snowden, TMCnet reported. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities rejected hints that Snowden, who used to work at the CIA and is now in hiding in Hong Kong, was spying for China.