Groups Primer Policy

Ahmed Alibrahim

13615617

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Yahoo! Groups (groups.yahoo.com)

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Yahoo! Groups Background

• Yahoo! Groups is one of the services powered by Yahoo! It is a communication tool provided by Yahoo! In the cyberspace.

• Yahoo! Groups was first launched in 1998.

• Yahoo Groups! Is a combination of forums and mailing lists, where participants can view messages in a particular group on both their email or the group’s page just like in any Internet forum.

• Some users use Yahoo! Groups as a message-delivering tool in which the group creator is the only person who can send messages to participants.

• Yahoo! Groups are also used as a discussion list where members can send and replay messages to the other group’s members.

• Yahoo Groups is subject to all Yahoo! TOS.

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Why Is It Important to Read Yahoo! Groups TOS

• The TOS tells the user about the

Ownership of contents.

• Who is responsible for the content

• uploaded or transmitted?

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Why Is It Important to Read Yahoo! TOS

• How is the privacy of user protected?

• Is the personal data protected?

• Can the data be published by Yahoo?

• TOS explains Policy about personal

data sharing with the partners and

advertisement targeting

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Privacy

• Personal information of Yahoo! Groups members is not made publicly available

• Access of members personal information are limited only to employees or to be shared with partners

• Yahoo! Partners have the right to share members personal information and reuse them.

• Users not reading the TOS would perceive this breach of their personal lives upon finding about it

• Electronic and physical safeguards are present to protect information

• Member's accounts are not intercepted by Yahoo! for the purpose of security and monitoring

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Contents Ownership

• Information published on Yahoo! Groups is owned by publisher.

• Yahoo! Groups do not claim the ownership of contents published in any of their pages.

• The contents published by users are not controlled by Yahoo! Therefore Yahoo! do not guarantee the credibility or integrity of contents Published on Yahoo! Groups.

• Moreover, Yahoo! Is not responsible for offensive materials Published by members on Yahoo! Groups.

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Cookies

• When Yahoo! Groups users agree to Yahoo! TOS, Yahoo! Send cookies to user’s computer.

• Other Companies advertising on Yahoo! Groups website is also able to send cookies to user’s computers.

• However, other companies and advertising agencies not dealing with Yahoo! Are not able to place cookies on user’s computers.

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Surveillance

• Top contributors of Yahoo

check for use of any explicit

language.

• Explicit words shall be removed

from the site

• Monitoring is done by the contributors and Yahoo employees.

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Children Protection

• Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to use Yahoo! Groups.

• However, They are still able to join Yahoo! Groups if they have there parents to join Yahoo! Family accounts.

• Parents are allowed to control surveillance their children accounts through the Yahoo! Family accounts.

• They can add, review, and/or delete any certain information they want.

• If parents do not agree to collect or use their children information they can delete the whole account.

• They also can make sure that their children’s account has been deleted by visiting Account Deletion page provided by Yahoo!

• Some groups ask for age verification to be able to join the group.

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Account Security

• To join Yahoo! Groups a member should hold an account in Yahoo! which is protected with a username and password.

• Data provided to create a username should be factual, current and complete to join Yahoo! Groups.

• Most people do not provide factual data; get involved in immoral activities with fake identity.

• As a result of that, Termination of account may result on non-integrity of data

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Pornography

• Some users use Yahoo! Groups to publish pornography materials.

• They send pornography photos and adult content videos through Yahoo! Groups.

• In 2001, Yahoo! Groups started to fight the issue by deleting all groups containing adult materials from the search feature and the groups directory.

• Yahoo! Made it very challengeable for users to locate such groups unless the user knows the accurate name of the group.

• To join an adult group an age verification is required by Yahoo!

• Only adults are allowed to join adult content groups.

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References

• Hu, J. (2002) Yahoo buys email list service eGroups in stock deal. Retrieved October 2, 2009 from

http://news.cnet.com/Yahoo-buys-email-list-service-eGroups-in-stock-deal/2100-1023_3-242517.html

• Yahoo! Kids Policy. Retrieved October 2, 2009, from http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/kids

• Yahoo! Privacy Policy. Retrieved October 2, 2009, from http://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/

• Yahoo! Terms of Service. Retrieved October 4, 2009, from http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html