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Yahoo! is committed to safeguarding your privacy online. Please read the
following policy to understand how your personal information will be
treated as you make full use of our many offerings. This policy may
change from time to time so please check back periodically.
Yahoo! is TRUSTe-certified. This certification applies to all English-language sites under the Yahoo.com domain. Please keep in mind that some of the products or services mentioned specifically in this policy may not be available on all of our international Yahoo! sites at this time. This policy will let you know:
1. What personally identifiable information is collected
from you;
NOTICE: Click here for important information about safe surfing from the Federal Trade Commission.
What personally identifiable information does Yahoo! collect from me? Yahoo! collects information in several ways from different parts of our network of web sites. Some personal information is gathered when you register. During registration, Yahoo! asks for your name, email address, birth date, gender, zip code, occupation, industry and personal interests. The more information you volunteer (and the more accurate it is), the better we are able to customize your experience. Once you register you are no longer anonymous to Yahoo! - you are given a Yahoo! ID and are able to take full advantage of Yahoo!'s many offerings. In addition to registration we may ask you for personal information at other times, including (but not limited to) when you enter a sweepstakes, contest or promotion sponsored by Yahoo! and/or our many partners; when you make a purchase using Yahoo! Shopping; when you make travel arrangements using Yahoo! Travel; when you post a Yahoo! Classified ad; when you submit a listing for a web site; and when you report a problem with one of our sites or services. If you contact Yahoo! we may keep a record of that correspondence. Yahoo! also occasionally asks users to complete surveys that we use for research purposes. Wherever Yahoo! collects personal information we make an effort to include a link to this Privacy Policy on that page.
What are cookies and how does Yahoo! use them? As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, Yahoo! uses cookies to store and sometimes track information about you. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. All sites on Yahoo! where you are prompted to log-in or that are customizable require that you accept cookies. (See "What are my choices regarding collection, use and distribution of my information?" for more information on cookies.) Generally, we use cookies to: (1) Remind us of who you are and to access your account information (stored on our computers) in order to deliver to you a better and more personalized service. This cookie is set when you register or "Sign In" and is modified when you "Sign Out" of our services. Yahoo! also uses cookies to store your zip code for other services, such as Yellow Pages. (2) Estimate our audience size. Each browser accessing Yahoo! is given a unique cookie which is then used to determine the extent of repeat usage, usage by a registered user versus by an unregistered user, and to help target advertisements based on user interests and behavior. (3) Assist merchants in Yahoo! Stores to track visits to and business at their stores, and to process the items in your shopping basket. This information collected by cookies is sometimes called "clickstream" or "click trail" and may also describe which pages you have seen in each merchant's store. (4) Track your progress and number of entries in some of our promotions, sweepstakes and contests. When a Yahoo!-hosted promotion uses cookies, the information written to the cookie indicates the player's progress through the promotion, and may be used to track entries, submissions, and status in prize drawings. (5) Measure certain traffic patterns, which areas of Yahoo!'s network of web sites you have visited, and your visiting patterns in the aggregate. We use this research to understand how our users' habits are similar or different from one another so that we can make each new experience on Yahoo! a better one. We may use this information to better personalize the content, banners, and promotions that you and other users will see on our sites. Advertising networks that serve ads onto Yahoo! may also use their own cookies. Yahoo! also collects IP addresses for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. In addition, Yahoo! Mail includes IP addresses in outgoing mail message headers.
How does Yahoo! use my information? Yahoo!'s primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you, the user, with a customized experience on our network of sites. This includes personalization services, interactive communications, online shopping and many other types of services, most of which are completely free to you. In order to provide services free of charge, we display advertisements. By knowing a little about you, Yahoo! is able to deliver more relevant advertisements and content, and hence better service, to you. In our role of delivering targeted advertisements, Yahoo! plays the middleman. Advertisers give us an advertisement and tell us the type of audience they want to reach (for example, males over 35 years old). Yahoo! takes the advertisement and displays it to users meeting that criteria. In this process, the advertiser never has access to individual account information. Only Yahoo! has access to individuals' accounts. This kind of advertisement targeting is done with banner ads as well as promotional email through Yahoo! Delivers. You will only receive special offers via email from Yahoo! if you have indicated in your account preferences that you would like to receive them. You can change your account preferences at any time. Yahoo! does research on our users' demographics, interests, and behavior based on the information provided to us upon registration, during a promotion, from our server log files or from surveys. We do this to better understand and serve our users. This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis. Yahoo! may share this aggregated data with advertisers or business partners.
Who is collecting information? When you are on a Yahoo! site and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with Yahoo! alone, unless it is specifically stated otherwise. For example, some Yahoo! services, like Yahoo! Travel, are offered in conjunction with a partner company. In order to provide this co-branded service to you, it is necessary for us to share your personal information with our partner company. If data is being collected and/or maintained by any company other than Yahoo!, you will be notified prior to the time of the data collection or transfer. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service. Promotions that run on Yahoo! may be sponsored by companies other than Yahoo! or may be cosponsored by Yahoo! and another company. Some or all data collected during a promotion may be shared with the sponsor. If data will be shared, you will be notified prior to the time of data collection or transfer. You can decide not to participate in the promotion if you don't want your data to be shared. Currently, most Yahoo! promotions are limited to US or North American residents. Please be aware that Yahoo! advertisers or web sites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. The information practices of those web sites linked to Yahoo! are not covered by this privacy statement.
With whom does Yahoo! share my information? As a general rule, Yahoo! will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or under the circumstances described below. Please see the Terms of Service or Use Agreements for each of our products and services for more detailed information about how your personal information may be shared. The following describes some of the ways that your information may be disclosed. Business Partners & Sponsors: Yahoo! may disclose your personal information to business partners or sponsors, but this is specifically described to you prior to data collection or prior to transferring the data. Details of shared use can be found in specific Terms of Service or Use Agreements, and sweepstakes and promotions rules. Some or all data collected during a Yahoo! promotion may be shared with a sponsor. If personally identifying data about you will be shared, we will tell you before we collect or transfer the data. Many promotions offer opportunities to request additional information from sponsors. By requesting more information, you give Yahoo! permission to transfer your personal information to the sponsor so they can fulfill your request. In many instances, only your email address will be shared. If more information will be shared with the sponsor, you will be notified prior to the transfer. Yahoo! Stores & Shopping: If you make a purchase from a store hosted by Yahoo! Store, or a merchant in Yahoo! Shopping, the information obtained during your visit to those stores, and the information you give such as your credit card number and contact information, is provided to the merchants. This is to enable transactions to take place. Merchants listed in Yahoo! Shopping or site or in Yahoo! Stores have separate privacy and data collection practices. Yahoo! has no responsibility or liability for these independent policies. For more information regarding the merchant, their store, and their privacy policies, return to that store's home page and click on their Information link. Yahoo! Auctions: On the Yahoo! Auctions site, we currently provide the information necessary to facilitate the auction transaction between the buyer and the seller. Yahoo! GeoCities: If you have a personal home page on Yahoo! GeoCities you may choose to participate in the Pages That Pay program. If you sign up to become an affiliate with this program, Yahoo! will share certain personal information of yours with BeFree, Inc. and each merchant you select. This includes information from the affiliate application and a unique Yahoo! GeoCities identifier number. This information is transmitted in order for you to participate in the program and to receive compensation for the sales and traffic to the merchants' sites generated from your web site. For more detailed information about the Pages That Pay program, please click here. From time to time, you may be offered the opportunity to receive materials or special offers from third parties. If you opt-in to receive information from these third parties, Yahoo! will (with your permission) share your name and email address with them . Third Party Data & Data in the Aggregate: Under confidentiality agreements, Yahoo! may match user information with third party data. Also, Yahoo! discloses aggregated user statistics (for example, 45% of our users are female) in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. Other: Yahoo! may also disclose account information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating Yahoo!'s Terms of Service or may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) Yahoo!'s rights or property, other Yahoo! users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. Yahoo! may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services.
What are my choices regarding collection, use, and distribution of my information? Yahoo! may, from time to time, send you email regarding our products and services. In addition, if you indicated upon registration that you are interested in receiving offers or information from Yahoo! and our partners, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. Only Yahoo! (or agents working on behalf of Yahoo! and under confidentiality agreements) will send you these direct mailings and only if you indicated that you do not object to these offers. If you do not want to receive such mailings, simply tell us when you give us your personal information. Or, at any time you can easily edit your Yahoo! Account Information to no longer receive such offers and mailings. You will need your Yahoo! ID and Password in order to access your Yahoo! Account Information. On some types of Yahoo! promotions, we will ask for your email address in order to update you on your score, entries, and status in prize drawings. When you participate in these types of promotions, you automatically receive promotion-related email, unless you choose the no-email option that some promotions offer. Occasionally these promotion-related email messages may include targeted advertisements. You also have choices with respect to cookies. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies you will be unable to use those Yahoo! services that require registration in order to participate. These services include (but are not limited to): Yahoo! Mail, My Yahoo!, Calendar, Chat, Message Boards, and creating a portfolio in Yahoo! Finance. You can still use Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions and many other Yahoo! sites even if you do not accept cookies. Yahoo! does not sell or rent user information to anyone. We will notify you at the time of data collection or transfer if your data will be shared with a third party and you will always have the option of not permitting the transfer. If you do not wish to allow your data to be shared, you can choose not to use a particular service or not to participate in certain promotions or contests.
What is Yahoo!'s policy on allowing me to update, correct, or delete my personally identifiable information? You may edit your Yahoo! Account Information and your public Yahoo! Profile at any time by using your Yahoo! ID and password. If you have forgotten your password, please click here to request a new password. For all other problems signing in to Yahoo!, please click here and complete this form. Your Yahoo! account can be deleted or deactivated, but doing so will result in not being able to access any members-only area of the Yahoo! network, including your Yahoo! Mail account (if you have one). If you saved the confirmation email you received when you first created your Yahoo! account, you can use the URL provided in that message to delete your account at any time. Please contact privacypolicy@yahoo-inc.com for further instructions about deleting or deactivating your Yahoo! account. If you are participating in a Yahoo! promotion and you wish to update your email address on the promotions mailing list or to quit a promotion and cease receiving promotion-related email, please contact promotions-feedback@yahoo-inc.com.
How does Yahoo! protect my personal financial and health-related information? Keeping your personal financial and health-related information private is vitally important to us. As with all information, Yahoo! will never rent or sell your personal financial or health-related information. This includes information kept in your Yahoo! Portfolio or from any Yahoo! Health assessment tools. For more specific information about health-related data, please see the Yahoo! Health Data Privacy and Security Policy. If you use Yahoo! Online Banking Access, Yahoo! will work with your financial institution to present your account balances and history to you on your customized Yahoo! pages. In order to present your financial information to you, Yahoo! receives that information from your financial institution in an encrypted format and presents it to you over a secure-server. Yahoo! Online Banking Access is regularly updated. Yahoo! encrypts this data and stores it on our secure servers. Knowing that you use certain services or features may help us to offer you better and more relevant content and advertisements. But as with all personally identifiable information, we do not make this available to any third parties without your permission. Any user statistics that we may provide to prospective advertisers or partners regarding financial product or service usage on Yahoo! are provided in the aggregate only and do not include any personally identifiable information about any individual user. Please note that there are several places on the Yahoo! network of Web sites where you can transmit credit card information in order to complete a purchase transaction or for verification purposes. Any time we ask for a credit card number we transmit that credit card number in an encrypted format. We use industry-standard, SSL (secure socket layer) encryption.
What security precautions are in place to protect the loss, misuse, or alteration of my information? Your Yahoo! Account Information and Yahoo! Profile are password-protected so that you and only you have access to this personal information. You may edit your Yahoo! Account Information and Yahoo! Profile by using your Yahoo! ID and password. We recommend that you do not divulge your password to anyone. Yahoo! will never ask you for your password in an unsolicited phone call or in an unsolicited email. Also remember to sign out of your Yahoo! account and close your browser window when you have finished your work. This is to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence if you share a computer with someone else or are using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet cafe. As a global company Yahoo! has international sites and users all over the world. When you give Yahoo! personal information, that information may be sent electronically to servers outside of the country where you originally entered the information, such as to the United States or other countries. In addition, that information may be used, stored and processed outside of the country where you entered that information. Whenever Yahoo! handles personal information as described above, regardless of where this occurs, Yahoo! takes steps to ensure that your information is treated securely and in accordance with the relevant Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, Yahoo! cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our online products or services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems.
What about children's privacy? Naturally, the safety of children is very important to us. Yahoo! recommends that parents and kids try Yahooligans!, a web guide designed especially for users between the ages of 7 and 12. Sites listed on Yahooligans! have all been selected by a team of experienced educators. This selection process ensures that these sites are fun and age-appropriate for our younger audience. Yahooligans! does not collect personally identifiable information from children. Yahoo! is a general audience web site. When children under age 13 attempt to register with Yahoo!, we ask them to have a parent or guardian establish a Yahoo! Family Account. The Family Accounts feature allows Yahoo! to obtain verifiable consent from a parent or guardian before we collect any registration information from a child we know to be under 13 years of age. In addition, Family Accounts allow a parent to access their child's Yahoo! account, edit account information and better control their child's personal information. To learn more about Yahoo! Family Accounts, please see our Yahoo! Family Accounts page. Children should always ask a parent for permission before sending personal information to anyone online. Yahoo! does not share personal information about users under the age of 13 with third parties and we do not sell or rent personal information about any of our users, regardless of age. In addition, Yahoo! will not send any direct email offers to users who indicate they are under the age of 13.
What else should I know about my privacy? Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily disclose personal information online - for example on message boards, through email, or in chat areas - that information can be collected and used by others. In short, if you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return. Ultimately, you are solely responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your passwords and/or any account information. Please be careful and responsible whenever you're online.
Additional Information Questions regarding this statement should be directed to privacypolicy@yahoo-inc.com. If you do not receive acknowledgement or if your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe. Also see...
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Copyright © 1999 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. Terms of Service
June 28, 1999