Your Internet provider records where you go temporarily at least in some form. Under proper legal authority, these records can be turned over to law enforcement. Any time you go to any web site, it receives information such as your IP address which might be able to identify you under some circumstances. Singling out Yahoo makes no sense. If you have a Google account and do a search, especially if you are signed into your Google account, it might be possible for your search to be linked to you personally. So much information is collected about so many people online that much of it is never processed or worked with in any way and is discarded. I should point out that it's not just Google but if you have any account with any service that provides searches such as Microsoft or Yahoo, it probably makes it easier to identify an individual who makes a search. However, as I more or less said before, there is so much information gathered about so many people that no one is going to waste any time trying to identify most people. I'd rather not have the information be more easily traceable so I don't conduct searches when signed into my Google account but in a practical sense, this actually means nothing. I do it because I simply don't want this information to be able to be more easily traced. I am not worried that it will be traced. This Yahoo matter comes up over and over when someone who is relatively new to e-mail lists starts circulating the same old message to all and sundry. It was mostly meaningless when it first started and it's no more relevant now. If you opt out, you might also consider the following: Nothing is free. Everything has to be paid for. If you opt out, you may make it just a bit more difficult for Yahoo to provide it's so-called free e-mail list services. It may be just one bit of behavior which, if most people did it, might mean Yahoo couldn't charge advertisers as much because ads couldn't be effectively targeted. Your individual decision will, by itself, have no impact. But if lots of people who receive this frightening message which circulates periodically unendingly about Yahoo tracking people do this, it may mean Yahoo gets less money. Everyone howls and yowls about wanting everything for free but no one is willing to pay the price required for free services and material.
Gene----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Pietruk" <pietruk@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 8:14 AM Subject: [accesscomp] Re: Fw: yahoo is tracking you
Reg I know you believe you've stumbled upon some big news; but you haven't. This is one of those old msgs that has been circulating for years upon years and has been discussed to death on numerous high and low traffic lists. At this point let me say this: you can easily opt out if it bothers you. It is account and pc speciffic so you will have to opt out in each instance; ie, you have 3 pcs and 2 Yahoo accounts, you need to opt 6 times to be completely out. Having said this, in at least a couple of instances, I hadn't opted out with no dire consequences. So if you are looking for some dire consequences, look elsewhere as this is nothing other than a more or less typical tracking cookie that is being employed on myriads of sites. And if you are truly bothered by tracking, then become a hermit, stop using any form of credit, get rid of using your Social Security or driver's license number on anything, never ever use discount codes or shopper saver cards, and all of the other instances of commerce in a modern society. Your phone calls are tracked by your phone carried be it mobile or landline; you may have a time card at work; you may be attending Church each week and having your name placed on an attendance registry; it is all tracking and a lot of it actually benefits you. Stewardship is what a man does after he says, "I believe." W. H. Greaves
