The worth of being a loyal customer of Yahoo is only US dollars 10. Refer the latest arrangement of Yahoo with the Government agencies, where price of sharing private information of an individual account has been worked out to USD 10. Only.
And if this is an act of treachery on those users who trusted their personal data with the Yahoo brand for so long, the reason to exchange it for so less seems only the recent dire state of the company. One can only imagine what the price of private data would have been, had Yahoo pulled off a deal with Microsoft.
So are such decisions expected to come by when suddenly a company on a high pedestal is pushed down into a recessive loop leaving behind only a handful of unethical choices to choose from in order to sustain in the face of recession (death)?
Yahoo
Here is the detailed price list at which Yahoo would be willing to share your personal credentials and demographic details to any government agency who fills out the request form.
• Basic subscriber records: approx. $20 for the first ID, $10 per ID thereafter
• Basic Group Information (including information about moderators): approx. $20 for a group with a single moderator
• Contents of subscriber accounts, including email: approx. $30-$40 per user
• Contents of Groups: approx. $40 – $80 per group
The deal to allow Government espionage seems exact opposite of what the Company has lately been claiming on TV Commercials. Is Yahoo really about ‘You’ or is it about money? Or neither.
And why hasn’t such a deal been firmed up with due consideration of consumer interest? Or least the consumer opinion.
Hello,
What bearing does the foll text (end of page 13 of the pdf) have on the above?? Or this is only possible for subpoena’d users (which is unlikely to happen for most users)..?
“CONSENT: In order for Yahoo! to turn over any information to law enforcement based on a user’s consent to search, the user’s
signed consent must be accompanied by a subpoena, and Yahoo! must be able to successfully verify the account of the user whose information is being sought. Along with the user’s signed consent and a detailed description of the information the user is requesting from Yahoo!, the user must provide the information requested in the Sample Consent to Search Form to Yahoo! in writing. (See Appendix D) If the user is unable to verify ownership of the account by providing registration information that matches what is in Yahoo!’s records, Yahoo! will be unable to
produce records pursuant to the user consent.”
It doesn’t take a subpoena, or an official law enforcement agency for that matter. Just $10 and a form filled out. It could end up being your ex-wife’s divorce lawyer digging up dirt on you, if they are willing to pay. Actually, Yahoo will hand out the goods they got on anybody to the highest bidder. Just like the way they reaped millions off their users in the recently revealed Reservations Rewards scam. A little trust goes a long way to line the pockets of Yahoo. It could be worse, just ask any Chinese dissident foolish enough to trust Yahoo. If Sprint handed out info on 8 millions of these requests in the past year, how many do you think Yahoo supplied? Consider their long time relationship with AT&T, who is famous now for domestic spying with the NSA and others to the point of creating a portal just for them.
Yahoo!… It’s Y!ou. That’s because the pwn everybody now.
Losers like Yahoo deserve to die along with AT&T. I stopped using Yahoo long time back. Except for Flickr which they acquired…:(
You’re saying *absolutely anyone* can give $10 and fill out a form and get this info; no need of subpoena or consent? Whoa… I find this incredible…. Is there any report of someone other than some Govt or subpoena situation having done this; or are you saying you read through that document and this is your interpretation? …I’ll admit I havent; but if true that anyone can get this info, this would be Harakiri… Also what does that “Consent” in the same document allude to, then?
This wired.com article has Law Enforcement all over it; I doubt if arbitrary people without a warrant/subpoena can get this info as being claimed in this blog. If my conjecture is true, this particular blog is misleading — ?
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/yahoo-spy-prices?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+
Yahoo! Certainly should not publish any such private information to anybody. However upon special request (by government bodies) they may share certain part of the data in public (and social) interest.
Hope they will regain the trust of the common people.
- Morbi
Hey Arvind.. your interpretation is incorrect. please go thru the entire document. the info will be given by Yahoo at a charge – only in case of legal matters..
pls reconfirm before starting such bad rumors.
How do u think it’s a rumor? How difficult it is to file a charge? Don’t assume that Government is less evil.
This is not about who is evil or not.
Its about two points that contradict the title and premise of the article:
1. Apparently one requires to get a warrant/subpoena to get this information for a user. This is typically not straightforward, and definitely cant happen at some bulk level.
2. Yahoo — whatever its current business or other travails may be — doesn’t seem to be using a strategy to make money out of this data and the charge; ie it does not seem to be a revenue strategy for them
It’s about change in stance/premise of a company w.r.t data policy and its privacy. Where is it mentioned that they have made it a revenue stream? In fact the charge is so low – a welcome bait per se.
Am I missing your point?
cheers,
Arvind
er… “recessive loop leaving behind only a handful of unethical choices to generate money in order to sustain in the face of recession” .. ??
Not mentioned, certainly implied/insinuated…
Anyways I dont want to prolong this… so, power to you; I guess I am the one missing something over here…
Made the little change, however
@marvindanig
Hillarious … why u guys think they gave email with unlimited storage for free??
To fill their servers with your garbage?
well the user credential that they mostly have is also garbage
… 