Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Yahoo Disables Automatic Email Forwarding Feature, Making It Difficult For Users To Leave (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the good-timing dept.

After it was revealed that Yahoo secretly scanned customer emails for U.S. intelligence agencies, now's as good of time as any to leave Yahoo Mail. However, the company has made it more difficult to leave by disabling the automatic email forwarding feature. Reuters reports: While those who have set up forwarding in the past are unaffected, users who would want to leave following recent hacking and surveillance revelations are struggling to shift to rival services, the AP reported on Monday. The company has been under scrutiny from investors after disclosing last month that at least 500 million user accounts were stolen from its network in 2014. The AP said that several users were leaving or had already left the service because of the negative headlines. The company's website says that the "automatic email forwarding" feature is under development and has been temporarily disabled.

22 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Would just make me leave faster by ArtemaOne · · Score: 2

    I have several emails attached to accounts that I do not use at all whatsoever. The only reason they still exist is because I have them forwarded. If I lost that feature I'd just kill them completely.

    1. Re:Would just make me leave faster by Narcocide · · Score: 2

      Unfortunately, that won't stop them from using the compromised account to impersonate you online for the purposes of phishing/social engineering attacks on anyone who had that your email in their address book, or anyone whose email was in yours.

    2. Re:Would just make me leave faster by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      when billing, customer notifications and support come through said email, yes

    3. Re:Would just make me leave faster by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      I have my own domains and servers. But this is separate issue where the AT&T/yahoo email is tied to the phone account for various things

  2. the kiss of death by speedlaw · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I still suffer from a verizon email address from three ISP's ago. I now host my own....email is too important to trust gmail OR Yahoo OR anyone else.

    1. Re:the kiss of death by Gussington · · Score: 3, Informative

      I still suffer from a verizon email address from three ISP's ago. I now host my own....email is too important to trust gmail OR Yahoo OR anyone else.

      You host your own as in you have a physical machine in your house, or you have something like an AWS SES?
      Most ISPs here block tcp25 because home machines are too easily compromised for spam bots. This means running 'your own' email server still relies on some other service that can equally disconnect you at an arbitrary point in time.

    2. Re: the kiss of death by corychristison · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This is really the only way forward.

      It's kind of funny how it's coming full circle.
      Way back in the day it was common to host your own email service. Then the ISPs started to push their own services included "for free" with internet service.
      Then the common "free" providers cropped up (hotmail, yahoo, then eventually gmail) as a way to not get locked in to your ISP provided email. Now people are having a hard time getting away from the free services that they once loved because people are now realizing you cannot trust anyone and are going back to hosting their own email.

      This has largely been made possible with the commoditization of "virtual private servers" and easy/free tutorials and solutions to setting up and maintaining those services.

      Personally, I've been paying for email service from a fairly reputable provider, but I am now transitioning into running my own servers to manage it. Partly cost reasons (I maintain email services for clients, over 30 domains) and partly the provider I was using was bought out by another company I don't really trust.

    3. Re: the kiss of death by La+Camiseta · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I've consolidated on Fastmail with my own domain. Everything is backed up via IMAP so I can move whenever I need to. I'd much rather let someone else take the time to deal with server administration and keep a backup as a "just in case".

    4. Re: the kiss of death by oddware · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What was old is new again.

      I have setup a private server for email, file/calendar syncing for friends that have cracked their phones and not put play store back on.
      Works a treat, easy to maintain. and i have duplicated most of the services Google would offer using open source software, never has the barrier been lower to running your own private server.

    5. Re:the kiss of death by Todd+Knarr · · Score: 2

      Using a straight hosting service like Linode involves owning your own domain name, controlling the DNS and having your own SMTP and IMAP server running. That's all stuff that isn't specific to Linode, the same setup'll work on any service that offers virtual machine hosting. If Linode disconnects you you can drop your setup onto a host on Rackspace or any other service, update your DNS records to point to the new host's addresses and you're back in business. That's much easier than if you've no control over the domain, the DNS or the server software.

    6. Re:the kiss of death by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The key to hosting your own email is having control over your own domain name. It is then trivial to redirect DNS mail records to any provider at any time.

      Having user@youhoo.com puts you at Yahoo's mercy. user@mypersonaldomin.com allows you to choose and switch providers at any time with very little if any disruption.

    7. Re:the kiss of death by turbidostato · · Score: 4, Interesting

      "You host your own as in you have a physical machine in your house"

      I host it at home.

      "Most ISPs here block tcp25"

      That means a minority doesn't.

      Vote with your wallet.

    8. Re:the kiss of death by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2

      Vote with your wallet.

      I do. I have free email that requires no effort from me.

      Probably doesn't require much effort from anybody else, either.

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  3. Wait. What? by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, there's this:

    While those who have set up forwarding in the past are unaffected, ...

    and, also this:

    The company's website says that the "automatic email forwarding" feature is under development and has been temporarily disabled.

    So... forwarding already enabled is unaffected but otherwise it's disabled - 'cause it's under "development" -- even though it's actually, already working?

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:Wait. What? by Locke2005 · · Score: 2

      Otherwise known as anybody that was competent and working for Yahoo! left a long time ago, when it became obvious their job could vanish at anytime, especially if they had the "wrong" kind of genitals...

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  4. Auto (vacation) Reply? by BringsApples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    First of all, this is totally a sh*thead thing to do. Email services are worked on ALL THE TIME, while up and running. There should never be a reason that forwarding, or any other aspect of email, should have to be disabled while it's worked on.

    As a work-around, you could probably setup an automated "vacation reply" of some kind, set it for as long of a time as possible, and just put an informative note that includes your new email address. Of course this wouldn't solve the issues where you're being sent email from some automated service that does meaningful things like, bill you for that thing that you forgot you're billed for every month, but it's something.

    --
    Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
    1. Re:Auto (vacation) Reply? by MarcAuslander · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Make a gmail account and tell it to pull the yahoo mail - then do whatever you like with it.

  5. "automatic email forwarding under development" by JoeyRox · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here are some other cutting-edge email features currently under development at Yahoo:

    * WYSIWYG display of text
    * Mouse Support
    * Select multiple emails to delete
    * CC: feature (in beta)

  6. Yahoo: the movie by cloud.pt · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This company is looking more and more like the Titanic (film), in the ways the ship is being "sold" to the sea of Verizon, and wanting to take 'em all souls down below by not letting them use lifeboats properly. Even the music playing 'till the very end to keep passengers amused as if nothing happened. Let's face it: the only way a company can save any kind of face from such a disaster is much like what Samsung is doing with the note 7: offer refunds, launch amazing new product pronto (fingers crossed for that, we don't want to lose that Android player, even if a seriously bloated one at that, the alternative is a closed ecosystem with an Apple and a price to match).

    But do you really wanna know what hurts the most? I'm a Yahoo Mail user since like 1999, and to this date I haven't gotten a single email, notification, anything at all stating the leak details through "common channels": I didn't get a CS email; I didn't get a site-bound notification in the UI; I didn't get an email on my alternative, out-of-Yahoo account; I've been searching their news feed since the first rumors and got no hits. It's flat out offensive. If I was an American citizen, or if such a thing as class action existed where I'm from, I would be suing their asses to oblivion (because only through a class can this have any meaning to a judge). I'm calling upon you Americans reading this: stick it up to them for us, they do not deserve a penny of the Verizon deal, and such a company deserves to be dismembered so that the actual talent it still has can move forward to real challenges, and the a-holes making these obviously economically-bound reasons can burn in the hell they're destined to.

  7. Forward in the other direction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The easy solution is to create another account somewhere else and forward it to Yahoo. Start giving everyone your new address and access your email via Yahoo until everyone has made the switch. Then turn off forwarding and use only your new account. I know that seems mindlessly simple but apparently Yahoo thinks their customers can't figure it out.

    1. Re:Forward in the other direction by gsslay · · Score: 3, Insightful
      The point of leaving Yahoo is to stop your email going to Yahoo (and by proxy the US government and any passing hacker that would like a look). If I had a Yahoo account, the last thing I'd choose to do is set up another email account elsewhere, and continue to forward it to Yahoo. I'd set up another email account, and immediately start switching to it ASAP. Starting with the important and sensitive stuff.

      The only reason to have the Yahoo account still active, and forwarding, is to catch the stragglers and any other email you don't really care about or have forgotten to switch.

    2. Re: Forward in the other direction by DThorne · · Score: 2

      I suspect this is all meant to catch the low hanging fruit - those people who aren't particularly techie or simply don't keep up with the news. Most technically astute users are already long gone or this will prompt the move. The simplest thing is to stop using it - pick a good alternative and start sending out those change of address emails. I still have my ISP account which I have forwarded to my primary, it's mostly a spam account but it's mildly convenient. If they pulled a stunt like this I'd dump it in a heartbeat.
      Despite people bemoaning how impossible it is for them to change their primary email, it's like cleaning out the basement - yup it's work, but just do it. You'll feel better afterwards.