FYI for Yahoo users

[Price, Erik]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Costolo [mailto:mcostolo at yahoo.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 10:59 AM
> To: gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> Subject: FYI for Yahoo users
> 
> 
> I was recently made aware of Yahoo's use of "Web Beacons" 
> that "allow a web site to
> count users who have visited that page or to access certain 
> cookies."  If you use
> Yahoo, this may be of interest to you.
> 
> More information and the ability to opt out are found at: 
> http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/pixels/details.html
> 
> Some caution on opting out.  Clicking the link takes you to a 
> page that notifies you
> that you have successfully opted out.  As well, there is a 
> "Cancel Opt-out" button
> prominently displayed on that page that will *undo* this process.

More dismaying is their use of special properties of HTML mail 
to determine whether or not the mail is actually read.  Obviously 
this is a tactic used by most spammers, so ideally a mail client
is configured not to download HTML images automatically (except 
mine, which we've already established is a piece of junk... ;)

Also annoying is that if you use Yahoo! mail or are subscribed to 
a Yahoo! group, you will need to accept certain Yahoo! cookies to
use these features, and determining which cookies are actually 
necessary and which aren't is too much of a pain.  So I have just 
conceded that Yahoo! is one network that will be able to track my 
movements on the net.



Erik