Choice in advertising

Posted August 8th, 2008 at 9:25 am by Anne Toth, Privacy & Policy

 2 Comments / Filed in: Trends & News

You love to travel. You recently researched hotels in Thailand online. You see an ad that features the latest fare discounts from your airport to Bangkok. You’re not sure how that happened, but it’s pretty great serendipity. Now you’re booked in 37A and looking forward to tasting a proper panang curry.

That’s one scenario that demonstrates how valuable online advertising can be when it’s customized to your personal interests. It’s the kind of relevant advertising that saves you time and money – travel discounts, coupons, retailer sales, etc.

But we know that kind of customized advertising isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (or bowl of curry).

That’s why we’re introducing a new privacy choice, giving you greater choice in how you manage your privacy online by letting you opt-out of customized advertising on Yahoo.com

We announced that new capability today in a letter to Congressman John Dingell (D – Mich.), the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that recently sent an inquiry to 33 companies about ad customization. You can read the full letter here. This new choice has been in the works for some time now, but we chose to move up our announcement so that we could share this information with Congress today.

It won’t take effect until the end of the month but you can opt out today by clicking on the “Privacy Policy” link at the bottom of virtually every page on the Yahoo.com network and look for the “Opt-Out” link in the sidebar.

Since most of Yahoo! is free, we know there’s not much preventing you from up and leaving us at any time. That’s why we work hard to earn your trust. And we think that comes with offering transparency and choice about the options available to you.

Anne Toth
Head of Privacy & VP - Policy

Tagged: advertising, privacy

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2 Comments Add your own

Rick | August 10th, 2008 at 5:15 pm

I am glad we will finally have a chance at getting rid of all the advertising. If I remember correctly, you were able to block them but I have not been able fo for quite a while if ever. I appreciate it.

Rashmi | August 19th, 2008 at 12:28 pm

It is nice to be able to opt-out of customized advertising, thank you for providing this feature. I have not heard of any other web site that provides this feature.