This month, Oath updated its privacy policies, which gives the company the right to scan their AOL and Yahoo emails in order to tailor ads for users
Verizon acquired Yahoo in 2016 and brought together AOL and Yahoo under an unfortunately called brand: Oath. At that time, we noticed that the merger, along with the approval of a bill that allowed ISPs to share browsing data, was something that companies had worked for years: the ability to extract revenue from consumers with their personal information. That prediction seems to be coming true:
Pledge confirmed to CNet that it implemented a unified privacy policy for its AOL and Yahoo brands. The updated policy ( discovered by Jason Kint ) states that the company "analyzes and stores all communications content, including inbound and outbound email content," which will allow it to "deliver, customize and develop relevant functions ". , content, advertising and services. "
The policy also states that the company can" analyze its content and other information (including emails, instant messages, photo publications, attachments and other communications), "and selects messages from financial institutions, saying that" it can analyze user content around certain interactions with financial institutions. "Oath says that its automated systems will eliminate" information that by itself could reasonably identify the recipient. "It could also collect the interchangeable image file (EXIF) data format of the images you upload, and use image recognition to "identify and label scenes, colors, better crop coordinates, text, actions, obje cts, or public figures. "
CNet notes that while Yahoo's previous privacy terms included terms, AOL's terms do not.The company's privacy policy allows you to opt out of participating in ad targeting and managing your preferences. The update of the policy also does not apply to some of Oath's affiliated companies, such as Tumblr and Project Little, which have their own policies Gmail scanned their users' email accounts in order to deliver targeted advertisements. but the practice ended last year.
The update further reinforces what the Yahoo-Verizon merger was designed to: provide an effective and direct line of consumers to advertisers, taking into account the fuss generated by Facebook after disclosures that data companies have acquired and used user data in an unlawful manner, these changes are not a concern n irrational for users.
