Yahoo is Tracking Group Members

[oregontocal]

I just received this from a friend in another group and thought it was important enough to pass on to you. I chose to Opt-Out.
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If you belong to ANY Yahoo Groups - be aware that Yahoo is now using
"Web Beacons" to track every Yahoo Group user. It's similar to
cookies, but allows Yahoo to record every website and every group you
visit, even when you're not connected to Yahoo. Look at their updated
privacy statement at:

http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html

About half-way down the page, in the section on *cookies*, You will
see a link that says *WEB BEACONS*.

Click on the phrase "Web Beacons." On the page that opens, on the left
find a box entitled "Opt-Out."

In that section find "opt-out of interest-matched advertising" link
that will let you "opt-out" of their snooping.
Click it and then click the opt-out button on the next page.

Note that Yahoo's invasion of your privacy - and your ability to
opt-out of it - is not user-specific. It is MACHINE
Specific. That means you will have to opt-out on every computer (and
browser) you use.

Related article:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/spywarean ... oobugs.htm

ALSO, in the Ad Matching Opt-out page there is also a link to the
"Network Advertising Initiative". It lists their members and you can
opt out of those as well.
http://networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp

[Cedar518]

Good info, thanks Chris!

[NakedPupsAndMe]

I opted out. Thank you!

[asirimarco]

Many thanks - will have to check those sites out. Sometimes I Wonder about the Internet and if its good or bad.

[AlmostThere]

thanks for sharing the info

[soisew]

Unless this site is a yahoo group site I don't belong to any such sites.

[soisew]

Hi gals. just read this post. and...read this article...http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/webbeacons.asp

I check out everything on snopes before I believe it. According to snopes this has been out there since 2002 so...and they have not determined whether it is true or not.
Shell

[oregontocal]

I'm a great believer in Snopes and use it all the time. However, this time Yahoo's own site gives the information.
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COOKIES

Yahoo! may set and access Yahoo! cookies on your computer.

Yahoo! lets other companies that show advertisements on some of our pages set and access their cookies on your computer. Other companies' use of their cookies is subject to their own privacy policies, not this one. Advertisers or other companies do not have access to Yahoo!'s cookies.

Yahoo! uses web beacons to access Yahoo! cookies inside and outside our network of web sites and in connection with Yahoo! products and services.
Your Ability to Edit and Delete Your Account Information and Preferences
General

You can edit your Yahoo! Account Information, including your marketing preferences, at any time.

New categories of marketing communications might be added to the Marketing Preferences page from time to time. Users who visit this page can opt out of receiving future marketing communications from these new categories or they can unsubscribe by following instructions contained in the messages they receive.

We reserve the right to send you certain communications relating to the Yahoo! service, such as service announcements, administrative messages and the Yahoo! Newsletter, that are considered part of your Yahoo! account, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them.

You can delete your Yahoo! account by visiting our Account Deletion page. Please click here to read about information that might possibly remain in our archived records after your account has been deleted.

[Cedar518]

Yeah,.. if Yahoo itself is providing a mechanism to "opt out" it must be true. I'll be following that link today and do the "opt out" choice. I agree about checking Snopes for so many of those email things. Most of those are bogus.

[soisew]

I do fully believe it probably true and it's probably more than Yahoo that's doing it, a good reason to have a good anti-virus, spyware and a solid firewall programs up and updating daily.

[oregontocal]

Amen!

[Bethers]

But the first article said it was more than accessing through cookies. Yahoo's own site mentions cookies - and the beacons are THROUGH the cookies. Expect this from hundreds of sites - and it's a good reason to set your computer to dump all cookies whenever you log off. And your antivirus and firewall don't protect against the cookie accesss - DELETE your cookies regularly.

[soisew]

I"m a regular cookie dumper....unless I eat them 1st!!!!

[AlmostThere]

Each time I delete my cookies I then have to put back in all my usernames and passwords which is a pain. If there's a way to delete cookies but save those, I'd lke to know.

[Bethers]

Yes, there is, but it will be different depending on your computer and how you dump the cookies. You can tell your computer to remember certain things.

Depending on what passwords you are allowing it to remember - I don't recommend doing that at all - as that's the first thing a shady character that got access to your computer would look for. Please, never ever let it remember passwords to any banking or important things - and if you use that same password for anything else - don't do that either.