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Yahoo, Bucking Industry, Scans Emails for Data To Sell Advertisers (wsj.com)

Posted by msmash on from the never-gonna-give-you-up dept.

The U.S. tech industry has largely declared it is off limits to scan emails for information to sell to advertisers. Yahoo still sees the practice as a potential gold mine. From a report: Yahoo's owner, the Oath unit of Verizon Communications has been pitching a service to advertisers that analyzes more than 200 million Yahoo Mail inboxes and the rich user data they contain, searching for clues about what products those users might buy, said people who have attended Oath's presentations as well as current and former employees of the company. Oath said the practice extends to AOL Mail, which it also owns. Together, they constitute the only major U.S. email provider that scans user inboxes for marketing purposes.

5 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Slight correction by asackett · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Together, they constitute the only major U.S. email provider that [admits that it] scans user inboxes for marketing purposes.

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    1. Re:Slight correction by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yahoo is a company that has had no reason to exist for the last 10+ years. Now that Marissa Mayer has driven the last nails into the coffin and floated away on her golden parachute, Yahoo might as well just be as evil as possible and squeeze out a few extra Shekels while they still can. What have they got to lose?

  2. fake news by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1, Insightful

    More fake news from a semi-official propaganda outlet. EVERYONE knows that Google and Facebook datamine your inbox, your browsing habits, and absolutely anything else they can find. And sell that data to repressive gover... er, I mean, advertisers.

  3. Re:Educate by sharing by asackett · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you correspond with users of ESP's it doesn't much matter what you use on your end of it. Therein lies the rub.

    I recommend encrypted email, for all things, all the time. Your mail might still be scanned, but at least they'll have to work for it.

    No, this isn't a workable solution in a world of people who don't give a fuck. But it's what I recommend.

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  4. Re:Guess why I didn't accept the new ToS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Violating my policy of not responding to asackett:

    Your policy of not responding to AC's is stupid, and pointing it out like that is pretentious. When AC posts are just racist tripe, it makes sense to ignore them and nobody deserves a medal for it. When AC posts are meaningfully contributory to a conversation, it makes sense to respond to them, and there is nothing noble about a policy that would block such a response.