U.S., European Commission Clear Microsoft-Yahoo! Agreement

February 19th, 2010

Posted by Brad Smith
Microsoft Senior Vice President and General Counsel
and Michael Callahan
Yahoo! Executive Vice President and General Counsel

As was broadly reported this morning, both the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Commission have completed their reviews of the Microsoft-Yahoo! search agreement and cleared the transaction without restrictions.

We appreciate the thorough reviews conducted by the DOJ and the Commission and we welcome the thoughtful decisions reached by each agency.  We also commend the collaborative efforts the regulators undertook to understand the search advertising market. Likewise, we are grateful for the efforts of regulators in Australia, Brazil and Canada who previously cleared the agreement, as well as those regulators we continue to work with in Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

We believe this agreement promotes choice, value and innovation for consumers, advertisers and publishers. Today, one company dominates more than 75 percent of the search advertising market in the U.S. and more than 90 percent of the market in Europe. We’re hopeful that this agreement is a first step for a viable competitor to emerge.

As we said when we announced the deal last July, the agreement required regulatory clearance in the U.S. and Europe before it could close. Now that we’ve received those approvals, we will begin the work of implementing the agreement. And we will continue to work with regulators in other relevant jurisdictions to ensure they have the information they need to evaluate the deal before it takes effect in those specific markets.

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Globe-trotting for Consumer Empowerment!

February 17th, 2010

I’m zipping around the world to spread the word on consumer empowerment, privacy and child safety. Yesterday I participated in a panel at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Entitled “Consumer Empowerment via the Mobile Internet,” the panel was moderated by Ambassador David Gross and was the beginning of an entire day focused on enabling the mobile future. Other panelists included Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI – of which Yahoo! is a board member), Lynne Dorward the Group Chief Regulatory Officer at Zain, Matthias Kurth of BNetzA Germany, and H.E Mr. S Poghisio who is the Minister for Information and Communications for Kenya.

I was truly inspired by the work that my fellow panelists are doing to enable consumers across the world to access and use the Internet as never before. That is where consumer empowerment begins. We talked about new fiber optic cables that are providing Kenyans with high-speed Internet access for the first time, mobile banking that gives farmers and small businessmen in developing countries access to new commerce tools even if they don’t have a bank account, digital citizenship and safety in a world of distributed devices in the hands of young people, and the idea of self-regulatory models of governance in privacy that enable global standards that move at the speed of the Internet.

Since the Internet is truly global, I was asked about the challenges of applying a patchwork of global and even state standards to services that we provide to Yahoo!’s 500 million users around the world. I indicated that it is, indeed, hard to do and short of a miraculous global regulatory order appearing one day (think Star Trek), this will continue to be a challenge for global companies. This is why we prefer a self-regulatory model whenever possible. It’s nimble, responsive, and allows us to create a consistent, portable, and global standard. I strongly believe there is evidence to support that self-regulation can work. One of our own examples is Yahoo!’s data retention policy move from holding identifiable log file data for 13 months down to 90 days for most log file data. Such a dramatic change to minimize how long we hold identifiable data is evidence of how self-regulation helps drive innovation at a rapid pace. If a law had been passed to set a 13 month standard, it’s not at all certain that companies would be motivated to move more aggressively. This is not just self-regulation, but positive competition within the industry. In the end, consumers win.

As the title of the panel says, it is all about consumer empowerment. Giving consumers access to information, means of communication, education on how to use these powerful tools, and portable controls that help them manage safety and privacy are all part of our mission at Yahoo!.

Anne Toth
VP Global Policy and Head of Privacy
Yahoo!

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Yahoo!’s Support for Safer Internet Day

February 9th, 2010

February 9th marks Safer Internet Day, and this year the focus is on digital reputation management – that is, how people are viewed based on what they post and share online. Yahoo! is also putting particular focus in this area and educating our teens, parents and educators about how to protect and manage youth’s online personas.

To help draw attention to Safer Internet Day and empower people to create a safer Internet experience, we are sharing our top 5 tips to protecting youths’ digital reputation, via Yahoo!’s corporate blog and social media channels worldwide.

We are also collaborating with iKeepSafe to develop and deliver Project PRO (Privacy & Reputation Online) resources to educators and parents to coach youth on protecting and managing their digital reputation. The Project PRO curriculum outlines practical advice to motivate parents and teachers to communicate with youth about the potential impact of their online persona and utilize the latest technology to observe and monitor their child and student’s online activities. Tips include:

  • Know what your child/student is posting.
  • Get a page.
  • Participate in social networking.
  • Flag negative images & comments.
  • Help build a positive reputation.

Last December, we hosted the third annual CyberCitizenship Summit with more than 200 educational leaders to guide them through the ProjectPRO resources, so they could in turn implement the curriculum in their schools.

We are very encouraged that this year’s Safer Internet Day is highlighting this important issue, and encouraging people to understand what they can do to stay protected.

Catherine Teitelbaum, Yahoo!’s Director of Child Safety and Product Policy

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You Think What Would Be Creepy?!

February 6th, 2010

On January 28, I was honored to be a part of the FTC’s second panel in a series of three that focuses on consumer online privacy. Hosted by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, this second of three public events was designed to explore the privacy challenges that are posed by technology and business practices that collect and use consumer data. Mine was the first panel that discussed the landscape and tee’d up additional panels that looked at privacy as it relates to social networking, cloud computing, mobile computing and legislation around ever-evolving technologies.

To listen to hear my comments which were quite colorful and got the room roaring, view the FTC’s webcast. The third FTC roundtable is scheduled for March 17 in Washington, DC.

Additionally, I was part of this year’s State of the Net conference held on January 27 in Washington, DC. My panel, “Debating the Framework for Online Privacy” also included Chuck Curran of Network Advertising Initiative, The Honorable Philip Dunne a Member of UK Parliament, Marc Groman of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce, and Ari Schwartz the VP and COO of Center for Democracy and Technology. The panel focused on aspects of Fair Information Practices that may be the basis for federal privacy legislation. The evening prior to the main event allowed for networking and education on Yahoo!’s privacy efforts (focusing on Ad Interest Manager and our upcoming CLEAR Ad Notice) to members and staffers on the Hill.

It continues to be a real pleasure for me to participate in these panels and provide insight into how companies like Yahoo! can provide a more compelling online experience while placing a premium on user privacy. By bringing content and advertising to you that is relevant and tailored to your interests, our customized “smart” services save you time and cut through the clutter. At the same time, Yahoo! is proud to be an industry leader with our commitment to data privacy, leading the way in establishing a relationship of trust with our users and implementing responsible self-regulation.

Anne Toth
VP Global Policy & Head of Privacy
Yahoo!

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Yahoo! Europe’s Ad Interest Manager and European Public Policy

January 27th, 2010

Yahoo! was very pleased to participate in a recent IAPP-hosted conference entitled “The New EU Cookie Consent Law – What is Your Strategy?” Rosa Barcelo, a Senior Lawyer in the European Data Protection Supervisor’s Office and Eduardo Ustaran, Partner and Head of the Privacy and Information Law Group, Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP rounded out the engaging discussion allowing me to give a company perspective on the issue.

The conversation focused on European public policy debates about cookies – what they are, how they are used to power products and services on a website, where this fits within emerging European legal framework(s) and what controls exist for users around such technologies? The group discussed where we’ve been under the earlier ePrivacy Directive, and where we may be going to reinforce website users’ meaningful control over their online experience.

An amendment to the ePrivacy Directive recently passed into law requires consent of Internet users before programs (including cookie files) can be placed on their computers. All that remains for the law to go into force is implementation on the local level by the EU Member States over the next 18 months. Over the coming year, the public policy community will look at current practices, emerging consumer transparency and control mechanisms, and the evolution of consumer privacy communications as an indicator of how Member States and companies themselves will manifest this “update” to the Directive through real consumer enhancements.

It was against this backdrop that I was glad to share the recent BETA versions of Yahoo!’s own work in this arena, in the form of Yahoo!’s Ad Interest Manager. Now available on Yahoo!’s French, Spanish, Italian, German, UK and Ireland sites, Ad Interest Manager takes an innovative approach to consumer transparency and control around interest-based advertising. As our users will see, these tools provide an unprecedented view into both the advertising categories used to choose the most relevant ads for them on our websites, but also a view into the information used to make those decisions. Powered with this information, users can exercise strong control over both the individual categories assigned for their browser and the interest-based advertising program a whole.

Thanks again to Ms. Barcelo, Mr. Ustaran and the rest of the team at the IAPP for a thoughtful and informative session!

If interested in hearing more about this conversation, the conference was recorded and is available on the IAPP website.

On a related upcoming note, Chris Sherwood—Yahoo!’s Public Policy Director in Brussels–will be speaking at a meeting of the European Parliament’s new Privacy Platform on Wednesday Jan 27th, specifically about our Ad Interest Manager project and the innovations that we’ve brought to our European consumers through these tools. The event is entitled “awareness and empowerment: the role of users in privacy protection.” Anyone interested in attending should contact Sophie In ‘t Veld, MEP.

Justin B. Weiss
Director – International Privacy
Yahoo! Inc.

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2009 in Review

January 24th, 2010

Happy New Year!  Yahoo! is very excited about all of the progress we made in 2009 and look forward to an equally productive year for consumer privacy in 2010.

Here is a look back at some of Yahoo!’s big wins for consumers in 2009…

User Transparency:

  • We launched Ad Interest Manager (privacy.yahoo.com/aim) which offers users unparalleled insight into their activities at Yahoo! and more control over Yahoo’s use of data for display interest based advertising.
  • We added a new footer link called “About Our Ads” to almost every page at Yahoo! so that more information about our ad personalization and serving practices – including a link to the Ad Interest Manager is just a click away.
  • We served nearly 2 BILLION public service announcement ads across Yahoo! explaining our ad personalization and serving practices – including a link to user controls for interest based advertising.
  • We refreshed the look and feel of the Privacy Center in the US and are in the process of rolling out these updates globally.
  • Yahoo!, in collaboration with the ad industry, launched experiments in new forms of user notice in close proximity to ads (check out the “AdChoice” link at http://green.yahoo.com/living-green).

User Control:

  • Yahoo! allowed logged in users to make their opt-out choice persistent.  For users who select to do so, they can associate their opt-out with their Yahoo! account – this means the opt out will be refreshed each time a user logs in on any computer or device.
  • We extended the opt-out to our mobile platform – including persistence for logged in users.  This allows user choice to seamlessly flow across computing devices.
  • We changed opt-out cookie expiration dates from the standard 2 years we apply to Yahoo! cookies to 20 years so that opt-out cookies are less likely to expire – making user preferences more durable.
  • We updated our web servers and data handling processes to remove opted-out user activity from our ad interest systems.

Data Anonymization:

  • While not strictly in 2009 Yahoo! announced a game changing user data log retention policy in late 2008 to anonymize user data log events (searches, ad views, ad clicks, page views, and page clicks) within 90 days (with some exceptions for security and fraud abuse detection and defense needs and to meet legal obligations).
  • We’ve made great strides in 2009 and are on track for implementing anonymization across Yahoo! systems in 2010.

Shane Wiley
Sr. Director – Privacy & Data Governance
Yahoo!

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Yahoo!’s Mobile Safety Tips

January 15th, 2010

During this holiday season, a slew of new mobile devices were brought into the home and put into the hands of teens.   And its no big surprise — kids today rely on mobile devices to engage with the Internet, consume information, and connect with friends and family members.  According to an August 2009 Pew Internet & American Life Project research study, cell phone usage among teens ages 12 – 17 is up 26 percentage points from 2004 to 2008.  And by the age of 17, eight in ten teens (84%) have their own cell phone.  With access to these powerful communication tools, teens need to be empowered and educated on how to be digital citizens, how to manage their online reputations, and how to make personal mobile safety a priority.

At Yahoo!, we recognize this need for education – among kids and parents – and we have developed this list of mobile safety tips.  We have been working closely with national child safety advocates, law enforcement agencies, educational leaders, and parents to help coach youth about protecting their online personas and creating a safer online experience.

  1. Think before you send. Stop, and think before you share a thought or forward a photo.  Imagine your grandmother or principal on the receiving end.
  2. Protect your personal information. When you send email, texts, photos or instant messages to people who are not trusted friends or family, don’t give out personal information they could use to find your physical location or exploit you. Guard your password like a hawk.
  3. Control negativity.  Think carefully about who you want to communicate with and who you should ignore.  Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger have features that allow you to block people. If you receive abusive or harassing messages online, report the abuse where and when you see it.
  4. Use Safe Search. Yahoo! offers a default Safe Search filter to help keep inappropriate content out of your search results. While no filter can guarantee 100% removal of all inappropriate content, using a filter like Safe Search will make a big difference in keeping unwanted material out of your search results.
  5. Download applications from trusted sources only! If you download software from a third party, be sure to only download applications from developers you trust. And, read their Terms of Service and privacy policies to really understand what you’re giving them permission to do when you download their app.
  6. Never Text while Driving. This should be obvious, but you’d have to have super hero powers to be able to read, type and drive at the same time, not to mention that it’s illegal in some states.

For more detailed information about mobile safety, check out the blogs and guidelines on Yahoo! Safely, and the excellent content on texting and sexting provided by our partners at www.netsmartz.org and www.connectsafely.org.

Catherine Teitelbaum, Yahoo!’s Director of Child Safety and Product Policy

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Yahoo! Making the Internet Safer

November 20th, 2009

Yahoo! has been a long-time leader and advocate for online child safety.  Over the years we have made it a priority to protect children online by creating the Yahoo! Safely website to educate parents and children, collaborating with child safety experts and organizations, hosting annual safety summits with educators, and participating in thought leadership events.

Most recently, I attended the Family Online Safety Institute’s (FOSI) online safety conference, which brings together leaders from government, industry, education and nonprofits to discuss how to best encourage responsible use on the Internet.   As a board member of FOSI, and passionate advocate for online child safety, I was honored to participate on a panel addressing how to get kids hooked on safety when they are young.  The panel discussed safety tools for children’s websites, how to encourage digital citizenship, and resources for parents.  The best practices that were shared included:  engaging parents in the content while their kids are young, providing activities that encourage families to extend their online experience away from the computer, and integrating easy tips about Internet Safety into the content.

Additionally, I was thrilled to support my esteemed colleague, Emily Hancock, in accepting the FOSI Award for Outstanding Achievement for her dedication to make the internet safer for everyone.  At Yahoo! we are all so proud of this recognition and continue to be inspired by Emily’s dedication to helping to protect children by driving improvements to products, services, and policies.  More on this achievement can be found on Yodel Anecdotal.

I look forward to continuing to share Yahoo!’s on-going efforts to help make the Internet a safer place for children.

Catherine Teitelbaum
Yahoo!’s Director of Child Safety and Product Policy

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Extending our opt-out cookie’s shelf life

July 28th, 2009

Many users of the Internet are now aware of what cookies are – small files on a computer that store preferences for the user. What many may not be aware of, however, is that every web browser cookie comes with an expiration date – much like the “sell by” date on food items you purchase in the store. Once the expiration date is reached, the cookie becomes “stale” and must be replaced with a new web browser cookie. It’s relatively rare for web site privacy policies to include cookie expiration dates but they are visible in the cookie files themselves. These dates can range from minutes to decades from the date the cookie is set. Although a decades-long cookie sounds like a long time, in practical terms most cookies don’t last for very long. Recent research from TRUSTe shows that users are being more proactive in managing their cookies either by actively deleting them (nearly half of all users clear their cookies on a weekly basis), or by using anti-spyware packages that clear cookies (including opt-out cookies) on a regular basis. In the grand scheme of things these factors makes cookie expiration dates less important but some concerns have been raised.

A few months ago, Yahoo! made changes to make our opt-out cookie persistent to address the concern that opt-out cookies may be inadvertently deleted by users. Today users can make their opt-out both persistent and portable by linking their opt-out choice to their Yahoo! ID. Under this process, the opt-out cookie (and its expiration date) is refreshed at every login.

A more recent issue has been raised by Chris Soghoian, a graduate student fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Chris has asked the NAI (Network Advertising Initiative – a group of ad serving companies focused on self-regulation in this area) to set a minimum expiration date of 5 years on online behavioral advertising opt-out cookies and to post the expiration date on the opt-out page as well. We agree that this makes a lot of sense so we revisited this issue.

Yahoo! has been in the process of implementing a two-year cookie expiration date for all Yahoo! cookies. That is why the opt-out cookie for those not making their opt-out persistent is currently set to two years but we recognize that opt-out cookies should be dealt with differently from other kinds of preferences. Yahoo! will be moving forward with extending the expiration date on our opt-out cookies to 20 years (erring on the side of being conservative). Implementing the 20-year expiration date on our opt-out cookie will take us some time to deploy across the thousands of systems we have around the globe, but we aim to have this process completed by the end of the year. We thank Chris for bringing this issue to our attention.

Consumers can learn more about their system’s browser cookies and the expiration dates by visiting Internet Options in their web browser (under “Tools” in Internet Explorer). On the General tab, under Browsing history, click Settings. Then click the View Files button. In this view, you’ll see every cookie on your system and its associated expiration date. To clear a single cookie, simply right-mouse click on that cookie and select Delete.

To learn more about how Yahoo! treats cookies, please visit the Cookie module in our Privacy Center.

Shane Wiley
Sr. Director – Privacy & Data Governance
Yahoo!

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Good Privacy Things Come In Small Mobile Packages

July 14th, 2009

Today at Yahoo!, we continue our efforts to offer personally relevant products and services with privacy protections built right in. We take privacy seriously whether our users are accessing Yahoo! on their PCs or mobile devices. Whether catching up on the latest news, sending emails, viewing the latest updates across social networks or taking and uploading photos, we believe the mobile experience should offer the same privacy protections consumers expect to find on the PC. Furthermore, management of privacy protections should be available via any mobile device, whether that’s an iPhone or a Blackberry.

We take special care to tailor our privacy features for the unique attributes of the mobile environment:

  • We have developed a mobile privacy policy which highlights privacy issues specific to mobile, so users can quickly get answers. The mobile privacy policy is easily accessible from all of Yahoo!’s mobile services.
  • We make sure to get our users’ permission before we use their GPS or cell tower information; and
  • When a signed-in user opts out of interest-based advertising on his or her computer, we respect that opt-out when that user signs into our services on the mobile device.

    • Now we have a new feature that lets our users opt out of interest-based advertising from Yahoo! right from their mobile device, making privacy choices even more accessible to our users. We believe we are among the first of our major competitors to offer an opt-out choice of this kind directly from a mobile device.

    mobile privacy

    The mobile Internet is constantly changing with new platforms, hundreds of devices and lots of exciting innovation. But our approach to privacy in the mobile environment is consistent with Yahoo!’s overall approach to user privacy. We want to maintain the trust we have built by giving our users more control and choice about how they share info with friends and customize their experience on Yahoo! mobile properties.

    Deepti Rohatgi
    Policy Director

    Posted in Mobile | 12 Comments »

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