Web Spy:

Yahoo Web Beacons
May Not Shine With Users 

MARY LANDSMAN / Your Guide to Antivirus Software 8may2005

[More on Yahoo]

Yahoo's current privacy policy is causing consternation among some users who object to their use of so-called 'web beacons'. Known in most circles as web bugs, these invisible images are embedded in websites and email and used to track your surfing - and even tell whether you've opened a particular email. According to Yahoo's current privacy policy, "Yahoo!'s practice is to include web beacons in HTML-formatted email messages that Yahoo!, or its agents, sends in order to determine which email messages were opened and to note whether a message was acted upon." (For more on the hazards of HTML email and the practice of using web bugs, see: Why Plain is Better)

But Yahoo's 'beacons' don't just stop at email. According to the same privacy policy, Yahoo uses web bugs both inside and outside their own network. The Yahoo privacy policy explains, "Yahoo! uses web beacons to conduct research on behalf of certain partners on their web sites and also for auditing purposes. Information recorded through these web beacons is used to report aggregate information about Yahoo! users to our partners." (To read Yahoo's section on 'web beacons', see Yahoo Privacy Center: Web Beacons

Although Yahoo claims that "No personally identifiable information about you is shared with partners from this research", many may wish to opt-out of the web tracking process. However, opt-out is browser-based. Hence if you use multiple browsers, you will need to opt-out separately from each one. And when you do opt-out, the page that is rendered may be slightly confusing to some users. Once you've clicked the link, you have opted-out. Do not click the grey button that says "Cancel Opt-Out". Instead, either click the back button on the browser, or simply close the window. The direct opt-out link is http://pclick.yahoo.com/p?optout.

You can also access the opt-out link by accessing the Yahoo privacy policy at http://privacy.yahoo.com, scrolling to the section on cookies, and clicking the link titled 'web beacons'. From the web beacons page, scroll midway down the page to the third paragraph under 'Outside the Yahoo! Network'. The link to opt-out is contained in that paragraph.

This is not the first time Yahoo's marketing tactics have come under fire. In April 2002, Yahoo automatically signed their users up for spam, junk mail, and telemarketing. To counter it, Yahoo users had to login to their account and opt-out of the arrangement.

source: http://antivirus.about.com/od/spywareandadware/a/yahoobugs.htm 25jan2006

Yahoo's 'Opt-Out' Angers Users

MICHELLE DELIO / Wired News 4feb2002

Reader's advisory: Wired News has been unable to confirm some sources for a number of stories written by this author. If you have any information about sources cited in this article, please send an e-mail to sourceinfo[AT]wired.com.

Internet portal Yahoo may want to think about changing its advertising slogan from "Do You Yahoo?" to "You DO Yahoo."

In e-mail messages that began going out last week, Yahoo advised its users that their account preferences had been changed, by Yahoo, to indicate that they wanted to receive advertising solicitations through spam, snail mail and telephone.

Yahoo has also added users' home addresses and phone numbers to their "Yahoo ID" profiles.

Predictably to everyone but perhaps Yahoo, user reaction to that e-mail has been less than positive.

Marketing and privacy experts predict that Yahoo's action will have a widespread and detrimental effect on all electronic sales and services, due to increasing privacy concerns.

"It's a tragedy when the actions of an individual company force people to conclude that all e-marketers are a bunch of pushy, disrespectful scumbags," said Jason Catlett, of Junkbusters, a direct marketing information site. "People may simply decide that the problems inherent in shopping online aren't worth the benefits."

Yahoo's action may also cause more than a dip in online marketing and sales. Legal experts said the company may have left itself open for a class-action lawsuit.

Yahoo reserves the right to change the terms of its privacy policy at any time, an option that typically appears in most privacy policies. But legal experts believe that despite the careful wording, class-action suits may soon force companies to handle collected data according to the terms of the policy that was in effect at the time the data was collected.

Last Thursday, online marketing firm DoubleClick agreed as part of a settlement offer in federal court that "an Internet user's online data collected by DoubleClick under one version of its privacy policy will not be used in a manner materially inconsistent with that privacy policy, unless DoubleClick has that Internet user's permission to do otherwise."

"It seems if someone acts in reliance on a policy, which attracted business for the profit of Yahoo, they should be able to hold Yahoo to that policy," Manhattan attorney Edward Hayes said. "I believe we'll start seeing more lawsuits when companies decide to change their policies in midstream. The DoubleClick case could set the precedent."

Information about the changes to Yahoo users' preference settings is tucked in an e-mail from Yahoo that begins with the statement: "Your privacy is very important to us."

The "new" preferences will not go into effect for 60 days, giving users a chance to reset their preferences to "No," before they begin getting marketing solicitations, a Yahoo spokesman said.

Yahoo IDs are required for use of some of Yahoo's services. To sign up for an ID, users only need to provide a user name, password and e-mail address.

Many users said they deliberately did not supply their home addresses, telephone numbers and other personal information when they signed up for their IDs, but later gave that information to Yahoo-affiliated merchants. That contact information was seemingly added to their Yahoo ID profiles, and then marked "Yes" by Yahoo for receiving mail and phone solicitations.

A Yahoo spokesperson said that ID information is collected across Yahoo's system to make it easier for people to purchase goods, sign on for services, and perform other activities. Information about Yahoo data collection is outlined in Yahoo's privacy policy.

But privacy experts pointed out that Yahoo's mixed bag of commercial and non-commercial services may have logically led users to thinking that information they provided for logging onto a mailing list would not be correlated with information later provided to a merchant.

"That is a basic principle of privacy that information collected for one purpose must not be used for another purpose without permission," Catlett said. "Users have a right to assume that information collected by one merchant will not be merged with information collected for participation in a mailing list."

Yahoo users who want to edit their Yahoo ID preferences should go to Yahoo's profile center and select "Edit your marketing preferences" from the Member Information section.

Catlett advised users to make a note of that URL, pointing out that according to its terms of service Yahoo reserves the right to change user preferences at any time.

source: http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,51461-0.html?tw=wn_story_page_prev2 25jan2006