Looks like it, anyway: “If you’ve been using Yahoo or AOL to avoid Google’s email scanning practices — or if you just plain use those services because you prefer them — there’s news from Oath, the parent company of both, that you’ll want to be aware of. A recent tweak to the company’s privacy policy gives it the right to scan all incoming and outgoing email, for the explicit purpose of delivering “content, advertising, and services.”” I’d be more exasperated by this if I ever used my Yahoo account for anything meaningful; as it is, I only keep it around because some of my relatives only know that one, and it’s a pain to switch everybody over. I figure that eventually either they, or I, will die of old age, which will handily solve the problem either way*.
Still. This is a bad time to get explicitly in the business of data harvesting. There is a backlash coming. But further comment on my part would drift us too close to certain lines.
Moe Lane
*It’s amazing how often, and how well, this trick works.