Yahoo! Policy Changes Expose Registered Users to Spam, Privacy Violations
Last week, Slashdot and many other on-line news resources reported that Yahoo! reset the marketing preferences on all registered users' accounts. This means that registered Yahoo! users who had previously indicated that they did not want to receive spam (promotional emails) from Yahoo! or its customers (marketing partners) would begin receiving it anyway.
We reviewed the information that Yahoo! is storing about subscribers, and came to the conclusion that registered users may receive the following invasions of privacy, unless they take action:
- spam
- junk mail (via the U.S. Postal Service)
- telemarketing calls
We urge CTDATA customers who are also registered users of Yahoo! to review their Yahoo! account information (for each Yahoo! ID, if you have more than one), and reset marketing preferences to protect your privacy. Read on for more detailed instructions....
Instructions for Changing Yahoo! Marketing Preferences
- Go to your Account Information screen on Yahoo!. There are several ways to get here. One way is to go to http://edit.my.yahoo.com/config/eval_profile.
- You will be asked to login, or confirm the password for the Yahoo! account underwhich you are currently logged in.
- Click on the "Edit Your Marketing Preferences" link, which is about half way down the page.
- Under "Edit Marketing Preferences", review the list of categories which Yahoo! has created. Note that unless you choose "No" under the "Enroll Me" choice, you will be sent email about that marketing category.
- Set the "Enroll Me" choices as you wish. If you leave any one of these choices as "Yes", you should expect to receive lots of email from Yahoo! and/or its advertisers.
- Pay careful attention to the choices at the very bottom of the page. We strongly recommend choosing "No" for the choices "via U.S. mail" and "via phone" under the category "Other Delivery".