back to article Yahoo! must! face! class-action! suit! over! email! snooping! – judge

A US judge has given the green light to a class-action lawsuit that accuses Yahoo! of illegally violating email users' privacy by scanning the contents of their messages to deliver targeted advertising. The nationwide suit alleges that the Purple Palace intercepted and parsed the content of emails sent to Yahoo! Mail accounts …

  1. Mage Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Good

    We need an independent investigation and regulation of all these mega corp so called cloud providers. Google, Yahoo, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin

    How private are documents sent to Kindle via Amazon?

    Good luck though with perhaps the 2nd largest provider/social media company in the World. Not on the list, TenCent. Though I think they may be registered in the Cayman Is.

    Certainly the Irish Data Protection Regulator will do nothing about those 29 out of top 30 Internet companies based in Ireland for EU, and now many transferring all non-USA stuff to Ireland, not for low corporation tax but soft regulation. The current enquiry into the 2005-2008 Banking Fiasco in Ireland is enlightening.

  2. skeptical i
    FAIL

    Boo-frikken-hoo

    re: "Yahoo!'s assertion that it would be too hard to figure out consent to the degree the lawsuit demands"

    Sooooooo stop doing the snooping that requires consent, how hard can that be? Morons.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Boo-frikken-hoo

      Now then, now then! Where will we be if majestic business plans are allowed to crumble into dust just because they don't work?

      But happily once the Trans-Pacific Partnership comes into effect then Yahoo! can try suing the state for undermining its "investment expectations", on the grounds that it is unreasonable that it shoulder the burden of complying with the ever-changing legal frameworks. And if that doesn't work it can try suing the entire US population since the phrasing "we, the people" surely creates joint and several liability for any acts that imperil Yahoo!s profitability.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Flame

        Re: Boo-frikken-hoo

        That's scary. But somehow I think AT&T would be first to file suit.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Setting email back by decades

    umm, Yahoo, you've already been doing that since about the time that GMail came out..

    1. circuitguy

      Re: Setting email back by decades

      gmail,hotmail scan the email for temporary keys for ads too but yahoo stores more info that both gmail and hotmail, with the goal to sell better targeted ads and tracks interest trends. Whether by email or by mobile, user-owner should have rights to private emails. Banks and credit card emails contains too much info that should not end up in anyone's database.

  4. Vimes

    "Better targeting" is the key?

    Really?

    How many people here wouldn't mind having a conversation online about a private matter only then to see adverts based around that conversation?

    Personally speaking I'd find that very creepy and would subsequently be very reluctant to buy anything from a company that uses those sorts of tactics.

  5. CAPS LOCK

    If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear....

    ... hahah, just joking.

  6. Ged T
    Holmes

    Facetube!

    You, too, should worry...

  7. James O'Shea

    Idiocy

    I have two Yahoo email accounts. One of them is because I have AT&Totally Incompetent as my ISP; they use Yahoo for their victim... ah, that is, 'customer'... email services. (I use AT&TI as my ISP only because the only real alternative is ComeLast, and I will never, ever, under any circumstances whatsoever, ever again deal with that bunch of incredibly evil pirates. AT&TI are incompetent; ComeLast is actively evil. And proud of it. If there was an alternative to AT&TI I'd switch in a heartbeat, but there isn't, so I'm stuck.) The other is because I had to access a Yahoo group (no, not one of _those_ Yahoo groups, the only boobs visible are certain of the members of the group, more's the pity) and that was a lot easier from a Yahoo account.

    This means that the _only_ real email on my Yahoo accounts are from AT&TI about the wonderful features they want me to pay extra for this month and messages from the Yahoo group. (Usually, unfortunately, from one of the boobs.) And, of course, spam. Very limited spam, as Yahoo is 'targeting' my 'interests' as expressed in my email, and that email is... of a very specific nature. Which means that most of the spam is general spam, mostly viagra/cealis crap and the odd item from our friends in Lagos and their allies. (My favs:

    1 the little note I got from Louis Freeh, Director of the FBI, about the $26 million that the FBI had recovered from fraudsters for me. Director Freeh was kind enough to email me from his very own personal Windows Live email account, sent while he was visiting Hong Kong, no doubt on business, and more than a decade after he'd stopped being Director.

    2 the other little note I got from Michele Obama on my $26 million grant from her husband's discretionary funds. Mrs. Obama was, like Director Freeh, kind enough to email me from her very own personal Outlook.com account, apparently while she was on a trip to Russia.

    Those two are enshrined in my Email Hall of Fame.)

    I use AT&TI's account only to talk to AT&TI. I use the Yahoo group account only to talk to the Yahoo group. I don't trust anything which shows up on them except for the limited scope I use them for. I don't trust email from Yahoo in any of my other accounts, usually deleting it on sight. Yahoo has only itself to blame for this.

  8. cyrus
    Trollface

    Seems interesting...

    That none of this applies to government agencies that do more damaging things to ones privacy than slinging an ad. Creepy double standard.

  9. DrM

    Pesky laws and courts

    Google should just buy them out, and then they will be legal and immune to lawsuits.

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