WIL WHEATON dot NET

50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong

Important Privacy Notice for Yahoo! Users

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I just got this from one of my Linux mailing lists.

Yahoo is now using something called “Web Beacons” to track Yahoo Group users around the net and see what you’re doing – similar to cookies. Take a look at their updated privacy statement.
About half-way down the page, in the section “Outside the Yahoo! Network”, you’ll see a little “click here” link that will let you opt-out of their new method of snooping. You may want to do this. Once you have clicked that link, you are opted out.
Notice the “Success” message at the top of the next page. Be careful, because on that page there is a “Cancel Opt-out” button that, if clicked, will *undo* the opt-out.
Sneaky little devils!

I strongly suggest that if this applies to you, you opt-out. Where you go and what you do online is your business, not Yahoo’s.

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14 January, 2003 Wil

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Hoo boy! → ← Choose

94 thoughts on “Important Privacy Notice for Yahoo! Users”

  1. Ras says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:22 am

    Thanks for the headsup!

  2. Aunt Patchy says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:23 am

    Thanks for the info Uncle Willy! We alway appreciate the heads up on people trying to butt into our business.
    Patchy

  3. Owen says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:25 am

    Whoa!
    It’s bad enough that my grocery store is tracking my purchases, isn’t anyplace safe?
    Thanks for the heads up, Wil!
    Owen

  4. cath says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:26 am

    I’m getting really tired of folks being all that interested in what I look at online. I’m not a demographic.
    How’s the hair holding up, by the way, Wil?

  5. Samalee says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:27 am

    Thanks for the heads up! Big brother bastards. Isn’t this microchip in my neck ENOUGH????

  6. robbie symington says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:28 am

    Yeah, i agree wil. Society is on a downward trend towards zero privacy. I dont like it one bit.

  7. Toonces says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:29 am

    *****************************************************
    Did you guys notice that the opt-out thing only works for one particular browser/computer? It doesn’t go by user… so if you use more than one broswer or computer, make sure you opt out for all of them!!!
    ******************************************************

  8. Blaine says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:29 am

    Every one is trying to find out what we do all day, my question is what do this companies do all day? I mean track millions of people as they surf the web and type out emails?

  9. Mark from TX says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:29 am

    I’m having trouble finding what you’re talking about, Wil…(at the risk of sounding stupid)is this when one uses Yahoo as a search engine? If so, I just looked and couldn’t find it. : (
    Hope I’m not being snooped on…
    Take care,

  10. The Slice says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:29 am

    Wil Wheaton: Man of the People. Elect to Full Ensign in ’89.

  11. Drakensykh says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:31 am

    I don’t smell all that great anyway. Why do they keep sniffing me?
    Thanks Unca.

  12. Jennifer says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:36 am

    Thank you very much for the warning! Looks like “Big Brother” is rearing his head more and more frequently.

  13. AMStrange says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:38 am

    Looks like it’s a cookie access thing… the question is, if you delete your cookies does it start all over again? What about browsers like Netscape that can be set to delete cookies on exit or to not allow access to cookies or to block cookies all together?

  14. Bog says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:38 am

    Grrr, snarl, froth et cetera.
    It’s not so much what I might be browsing (though I’m half tempted to run up a little bandwidth browsing, oh I don’t know, sheep-breeding websites just the blow their demographic) it’s the principle of the thing.
    Thanks for the heads-up on this one. Remember kids, 2003 if “Informational Hygeine” year!

  15. Stinky says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:41 am

    That stuff concerns me but….
    how do they filter the sheer volume of info that comes in. Even the NSA, which is the biggest brother in the world, cant cope with the amount of intel they recieve.

  16. Stinky says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:41 am

    That stuff concerns me but….
    how do they filter the sheer volume of info that comes in. Even the NSA, which is the biggest brother in the world, cant cope with the amount of intel they recieve.

  17. Moonie says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:46 am

    Ahhh, the fun of ‘living’ online. *snarl, mumble, grumble, froth*
    Thank Unlce Willy for the heads up! 🙂

  18. edgar says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:50 am

    you can just click here: http://pclick.yahoo.com/p?optout to opt out
    hm. would be so easy to make that a redirect-url on some pages…like, go to WWDN and it spawns a new window that sends you to that url…they didn’t think the opt-out method through very well.

  19. buntz says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:52 am

    I blame the Libertarians

  20. RA says:
    14 January, 2003 at 11:54 am

    Thanks so much for the heads-up! I don’t think I would have ever known about that had I not read your site…. Which actually leaves me feeling seriously queasy.
    Thanks again!

  21. ionicus says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:00 pm

    Thanks Wil.

  22. ionicus says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:04 pm

    Note that you have to opt-out for each *browser* you use.
    Evil.

  23. rust says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:07 pm

    As some people know, I run a cybercafe.
    The sort of thing that Yahoo is doing just burns my butt. Isn’t it enough that I have to run @#~%$! antivirus, AD-Aware and a customs hosts file to stop snooping, now I have to put up with those farkin yahoos.
    I have hated Yahoo with a passion for about 4 years when they decided that I was a minor BECAUSE I DON’T HAVE A CREDIT CARD to prove otherwise. Assholes. So, what did they do? Cancelled my yahoo account in the name of protecting CHILDREN. And, do you think that they responded to ANY of my emails protesting this? NO.
    Also, WHAT THE HELL DOES A CREDIT CARD have to do with your AGE?
    Scumbags. Freaks. Goofs. Bastards. Anyone care to add to my list of epithets, feel free!
    Grrrrrrr

  24. Pat says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:11 pm

    ‘Behind Winston’s back the voice from the telescreen was still babbling away about pig-iron and the overfulfilment of the Ninth Three-Year Plan. The telescreen received and transmitted simultaneously. Any sound that Winston made, above the level of a very low whisper, would be picked up by it, moreover, so long as he remained within the field of vision which the metal plaque commanded, he could be seen as well as heard. There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.’
    Sorry to be a paragraph hog, just thought a little excerpt from “1984” would be appropriate here. Looks like Orwell was about 20 years off…

  25. Joseph says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:22 pm

    Thank you Wil! I was OK when Yahoo swallowed my ISP (Prodigy), but now I’m seriously rethinking my decision to stay with them. In the meantime I’ll opt out of their snoop program. Goddamn bastards.

  26. MrSpock says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:26 pm

    Bastards!
    I *almost* pressed the “cancel opt-out” button, even if I knew to look for it! }8-(
    Thanks for the heads up

  27. Dayna says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:29 pm

    Yeah, Web Beacons are also part of MSN’s terms of service as well, but oh, I could go on for a long, long time about MSN’s Privacy Evils.

  28. qowildfrontier says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:32 pm

    On another note, not as creepy, Wil if you don’t know about this, tell your readers:
    http://www.musiccdsettlement.com/english/default.htm7
    Sign up, all those that bought CDs between then and now.

  29. Helen says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:43 pm

    Thanks Wil…I haven’t checked the privacy policy recently. I should do that more often.
    Thanks much!!

  30. LadySprite says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:44 pm

    Thanks Wil
    That cancel option was quite sneaky, thats the way most sites put there ‘return’ to the previous screen button, I almost clicked the darn thing out of reflex! Then I remembered what you said!

  31. Divana Redforest says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:44 pm

    Those lousy rat bastards!
    Thanks Wil.
    That kind of sneaky stuff they are pulling just annoys me to no end.

  32. Ham Salad says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:47 pm

    Thanks for the tip, Wil.
    This has been said before, but I’m repeating it anyway:
    ***you have to opt-out for each browser you use***

  33. Kittee says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:50 pm

    I remember them doing something like this a couple of years ago when they first aquired egroups.com
    ty wil for telling me they are doing it again.
    I hate yahoo with a passion. and what was behind their decision to get rid of the frames in yahoo mail?

  34. sandra says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:52 pm

    All the more reason to use Google. 😀

  35. Kittee says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:56 pm

    actually I noticed I was opt-out’d already. So if you did the Opt-out thing about 3 years ago then your fine.
    This isnt new for yahoogroups. They’re still mean.

  36. Jim says:
    14 January, 2003 at 12:58 pm

    The way I read this is that if you don’t accept HTML mail from them (and HTML in mail is an abomination) they can’t track you anyway.

  37. Shannon says:
    14 January, 2003 at 1:19 pm

    Thanks for passing that on, Wil.
    My school can’t hurry up fast enough in getting its own server so we don’t need Yahoo for our teacher accounts anymore…

  38. Spudnuts says:
    14 January, 2003 at 1:20 pm

    It’s not just “sneaky.”
    Malevolent, perverse, par for the course.
    All you fuckers, young and old, black and white, male and female, conservative and neo-conservative, need to understand that we are at fucking war.
    I am not joking.
    The corporations are slowly, methodically, inexorably eliminating every avenue of egress. Your government is no longer yours. It’s not about whether you have to endure commercials on your Tivo-ed copy of “American Idol” or whether Yahoo spams your mail account.
    Enterprise? Two Towers? NFL? Buffy?
    Fuck that and fuck you.
    Your children are going to demand an account of what you were doing in those critical years when all global information fell under the control of a half dozen corporations.

  39. edgar says:
    14 January, 2003 at 1:28 pm

    hey if your kids want an account of what you were doing, they better have a subpoena.

  40. shauna says:
    14 January, 2003 at 1:39 pm

    Thanks, Wil. My husband doesn’t care as much about what I do online as Yahoo apparently does. Bastards.

  41. DeadCat says:
    14 January, 2003 at 1:57 pm

    Very useful, thanks much!

  42. Reg Barkley says:
    14 January, 2003 at 2:34 pm

    This is nothing new. Every major web site has been doing this ever since cookies were invented. Yahoo is just one of the first to let you opt-out.

  43. Amber says:
    14 January, 2003 at 2:44 pm

    Bastards.
    Thanks, Wil!

  44. EnglishBen says:
    14 January, 2003 at 2:45 pm

    *Dons tin hat*
    Thank-god for not using Yahoo.
    *Starts lift down to bunker*
    See you in a few years…

  45. jozjozjoz says:
    14 January, 2003 at 3:10 pm

    Thanks Wil,
    This is probably the 3rd time since I’ve had to go in and “fix” my privacy options with Yahoo. I like how they create new options and opt us in without letting us know…
    -Jocelyn

  46. Ryan_W says:
    14 January, 2003 at 3:12 pm

    Uncle Willy may know all, but Yahoo deserves to know Jack Shit about what I do on my computer. Can you say invasion of privacy?

  47. Thumper says:
    14 January, 2003 at 3:14 pm

    **MUCHO** thanks for this heads up… cripes, you should have to pt in for total crap, dontcha think?

  48. Vanessa says:
    14 January, 2003 at 3:16 pm

    Thanks for the tip, Wil.

  49. Moonbeast says:
    14 January, 2003 at 3:17 pm

    Damn,
    the porn was my own…
    I mean, thanks for the tip 🙂

  50. [email protected] says:
    14 January, 2003 at 4:17 pm

    I heart you Uncle Willie. 🙂 Thank you so much for the heads up on thos bastards.
    I’m also glad you liked the photoshop we did last night.

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