Yahoo scanned its users' incoming emails for an unusual string of characters that had been linked to a terrorist organisation, according to a fresh report about the matter.
The New York Times says flagged messages were made available to the FBI, but the scans have now stopped.
It adds that the tech company adapted one of its spam and child-abuse-image filters to carry out the task.
The details build on an earlier report by the news agency Reuters.
Yahoo declined to add to its previous statements, in which it said Reuters' report was "misleading" and that it was "a law-abiding firm".
The California-based company also said the mail-scanning process outlined by Reuters "does not exist" on its systems, but did not explicitly address whether it had done so previously.
The New York Times says its report is based on interviews with two unnamed US government officials and a third anonymous person "familiar with" Yahoo.
It says that FBI investigators had learned that agents of a foreign terrorist body were using Yahoo's email service.
The bureau had managed to discover a "highly unique identifier or signature" used by the terrorists, it adds, but had been unable to indentify which accounts were being used, and so wanted Yahoo's aid.
It says that a judge at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was persuaded that the string of characters would have been used only by a foreign power, and so agreed to issue an order for Yahoo to comply.
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