A reader wants to know how to find out what types of information Yahoo! is keeping on file about him:
“I use a Chrome Browser but I use my Yahoo.com address to connect. Can I access what my Yahoo account has on me?”
Like Microsoft and Google, Yahoo also offers a privacy dashboard. Yahoo is part of Oath, which is a subsidiary of Verizon. From the Oath privacy dashboard, you can also view information about your AOL account.
Click here to head to the dashboard: https://policies.oath.com/us/en/oath/privacy/dashboard/index.html
Scroll down to find Yahoo and click on it.
Sign in to your account.
You’ll see your email address, which browser you’re currently using, how long you’ve been a member, and the number of email messages.
You’ll be able to check out what information Yahoo uses to target ads for you and your shopping history. Click on any of the categories and you’ll see a more detailed listing of the information Yahoo is keeping on you.
Scroll down to Privacy Controls
Click on any category to adjust the controls.
For example, if I click on Personalized Advertising, I can choose whether or not Oath uses my online activity to decide what types of ads to show me.
Did you know that Yahoo scans all of your emails and messages and picks keywords based on what you write and receive? Those keywords are then used to target advertising to you. To change that, click on Communications Analysis.
If you’d prefer that Yahoo not use that information to target ads, you can slide the Agree button to the Disagree position. Yahoo will still scan your communications for keywords and use that information for things like offering product features and filtering spam but not for targeting ads.
You can go through each of these permissions one by one, see how they work and adjust the permissions accordingly.
To see a summary of your data, scroll to the bottom and choose Request a download.
Choose what type of data you want to download.
You’ll be notified when the data is ready. That may take up to 30 days.