For example, Yahoo’s Privacy Policy notes that “Yahoo! advertisers include financial service providers (such as banks, insurance agents, stock brokers and mortgage lenders) and non-financial companies (such as stores, airlines, and software companies).” When you use Yahoo services, you aren’t just sharing with Yahoo: you’re sharing with hundreds of third-party companies you’ve never heard of. And some of these partners are pretty sensitive. Yahoo has a vast network of data selling partners and affiliates. Keep in mind that Yahoo’s privacy issues don’t end with email scanning. If Yahoo’s system is anything like the others that currently exist (like on Facebook), once the system flags something as abusive, it could escalate to a real person.
Why? Because Yahoo is combing through your emails not only to figure out what you’re talking about to target you with ads, but for “abuse protection.” Although “abuse” is vague, it could mean violations of Yahoo’s Terms (like sending spam or links to copyrighted content) or unlawful behavior. It’s not only a computerized system looking through your email occasionally it’ll be a real person. The new TOS puts the burden on Yahoo users to tell the people they’re communicating with about this scanning: “If you consent to this ATOS and communicate with non-Yahoo! users using the Services, you are responsible for notifying those users about this feature.” There’s another privacy issue, too: Yahoo doesn’t just scan the email of Yahoo Mail users, but also the email of anyone who corresponds with them. That’s right: even if you don’t use Yahoo Mail but you email someone who does, Yahoo can scan your communications. Google has been doing this with Gmail for a long time. These systems guess at who you are and what interests you, and then change the ads you see on Yahoo to whatever they think you’ll respond to. Yahoo has automated systems that look at the words you type, the files you attach, the people you contact, your location, and more. That means accepting the revised Terms of Service (TOS) and and Privacy Policy, which means agreeing to let “Yahoo!’s automated systems scan and analyze all incoming and outgoing communications content sent and received from your account.” Read on for 7 tips to deal with this change.Īs of today (June 3, 2013), Yahoo Mail users will have to switch to the new version, which launched back in December.
Yahoo is forcing its email users to switch to a new version of Yahoo Mail, and although it’s certainly easier on the eyes, the biggest change is less obvious: the new policy lets Yahoo scan your emails and IMs to target you with ads and see if you’re violating any policies or laws.
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