Case Studies: Yahoo!
Yahoo!: In 2010 Yahoo! was applauded by users and privacy advocates when it successfully fought a Justice Department demand for access to a user’s email without a search warrant. The Justice Department withdrew its request after Yahoo went to court rather than comply with the demand (and was publicly supported by Google and privacy organizations in a friend-of-the-court brief). Yahoo privacy organizationswon points for being committed to protecting the privacy of its users.
Ask, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!: Major search engines have started to recognize the importance of limiting data-retention periods for all data. Ask developed the AskEraser, allowing users to conduct online searches without the company logging any information. Microsoft deletes the full IP address, cookies, and any other identifiable user information from its logs after 18 months. Yahoo! is now planning to anonymize all search records after three months. Google now engages in a very limited form of log anonymization after nine months for those using the search engine and not logged into a Google account. After 18 months, the company deletes a portion of the stored IP address and de-identifies the cookie information stored in its logfiles.
Yahoo!: Yahoo! became a free speech leader in 2001 when it refused to cave to pressure from the French government to ban the sale of Nazi memorabilia on the Yahoo! auction site. Yahoo!’s principled stand not only helped to guarantee that Americans would be able to read, think, and speak freely in the marketplace of ideas, but also helped set an important precedent for Internet businesses about the need to stand up to conflicting international laws that threaten the rights of users.
Yahoo!: The search engine and email giant has been forced to settle multi-milliondollar lawsuits, grilled repeatedly during Congressional hearings, rebuked in the press, and targeted by international protests for turning over identifying information in 2006 about its users to the Chinese government. The Chinese government used this data to link users to pro-democracy activities and to imprison dissidents.
