Guys,
I looked into this a few years ago when it started and decided I wasn't, personally, worried about it. As far as I know, Yahoo can NOT track every website you visit. For the beacon system to work, you have to access something that has the web beacon embedded in it, i.e. a web page or a web page containing a beacon-tagged image or forward a Yahoo group e-mail in HTML format. When you do this, the beacon does "ET call home." But, if you visit a web page with NO beacons embedded, then nothing is sent back. For the beacon to do anything, the client company has to pay a fee to Yahoo for beacon tracking and to get a beacon with a unique ID. By this means, a company (Joes's Widgets) can track every time their page gets visited. But, if you visit Barney's Widget company website and they are not signed up with Yahoo to track widgets, it's unlikely that any beacon report could be sent back. If you get e-mail from the Yahoo ercoupe-tech forum, then you are more likely to see ads on the screen about airplanes (and cars that have "coupe" in their name). Just now I visited the ercoupe-tech web page. At the bottom were five ads, all aviation related and some of them were a bit interesting. Personally, I'd rather see ads for products in which I might have an interest than products randomly selected from everything in the world. Yahoo says this: Information recorded through these web beacons is used to report anonymous individual and/or aggregate information about Yahoo! users to our partners. Aggregate information may include demographic and usage information. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with partners from this research. I'm inclined to believe that they follow those rules. Individual information is anonymous. It's probably client 2952234 that is a member of ercoupe-tech and who also looks at Yahoo movies and Yahoo TV schedules and is a member of certain other groups, not "Ed Burkhead." And, it is client 2952234 who gets a certain selected batch of ads on the screen. Aggregate information may say that more people in East Peoria or Tazewell County are interested in widgets than are people in other areas. I haven't bothered to opt out. Nothing I do on the Internet should ever embarrass me if brought up during my next job interview. JMHO Ed _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 9:48 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Fwd: [ercoupe-flyin] Yahoo Spyware - BEWARE Hey ED: I am sure you are already aware of this sort of thing. Can we do anything about it? Lynn Nelsen _____ From: [email protected] To: [email protected] Sent: 1/11/2009 10:28:17 A.M. Eastern Standard Time Subj: [ercoupe-flyin] Yahoo Spyware - BEWARE This comes from a motorcycle group I belong to that chats on Yahoo as we do. Scoundrels that they are, you are being tracked with every site you look at. Read this and do what you feel is best for you. 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> http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html > < <http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html> http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/details.html> > > About half-way down the page, in the section on cookies, you'll 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. _____ A Good Credit Score is 700 or Above. See <http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1215855013x1201028747/aol?redir=htt p://www.freecreditreport.com/pm/default.aspx?sc=668072%26hmpgID=62%26bcd=Dec emailfooterNO62> yours in just 2 easy steps!
