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Home » Articles » Anitivirus Software
Yahoo web beacons
From Mary Landesman,
May 8 2005
May not shine with users
Yahoo's current privacy policy is causing consternation among some users who object to their use of so-called 'web beacons'. Known in most circles as web bugs, these invisible images are embedded in websites and email and used to track your surfing - and even tell whether you've opened a particular email. According to Yahoo's current privacy policy, "Yahoo!'s practice is to include web beacons in HTML-formatted email messages that Yahoo!, or its agents, sends in order to determine which email messages were opened and to note whether a message was acted upon." (For more on the hazards of HTML email and the practice of using web bugs, see: Why Plain is Better)
But Yahoo's 'beacons' don't just stop at email. According to the same privacy policy, Yahoo uses web bugs both inside and outside their own network.
The Yahoo privacy policy explains, "Yahoo! uses web beacons to conduct research on behalf of certain partners on their web sites and also for auditing purposes. Information recorded through these web beacons is used to report aggregate information about Yahoo! users to our partners."
Although Yahoo claims that "No personally identifiable information about you is shared with partners from this research", many may wish to opt-out of the web tracking process. However, opt-out is browser-based. Hence if you use multiple browsers, you will need to opt-out separately from each one. And when you do opt-out, the page that is rendered may be slightly confusing to some users. Once you've clicked the link, you have opted-out. Do not click the grey button that says "Cancel Opt-Out". Instead, either click the back button on the browser, or simply close the window. The direct opt-out link is http://pclick.yahoo.com/p optout.
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