FC: Yahoo, seeking revenue, now defaults to marketing-email-OK

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

[TANSTAAFL. Folks irked at this should (a) change their Yahoo preferences, 
(b) urge list owners to move their lists to a spam-free-zone, or (c) use a 
special email address for Yahoo groups that's backed by a set of rules 
allowing only list email through and flagging the other stuff. --Declan]

---

Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2002 16:36:14 -0800 (PST)
From: Annalee Newitz <brainsploitation () yahoo com>
Subject: yahoo's "spam permission" scheme
To: declan () well com
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
X-UIDL: 1bae4fc168dddf55f7dd8570d03112c5

Hi Declan. I thought the politechnicals would be
interested to hear about Yahoo's new spam scheme.
Without making any formal announcements to their
members, they've added a new "marketing preferences
feature" to their membership accounts. Here are the
details (from another list I'm on):

From: Barbara Karmazin <selkiewife () ihs2000 com>
To: broaduniverse () yahoogroups com
Subject: [broaduniverse] Yahoo Spam Mail

Yahoo has sneakily added something something called
"Marketing Preferences" to your account that gives
Yahoo permission to send you spam through e-mail, the
U.S. mail and phone, unless you check the
"No" option of a series of buttons.

At the moment, Yahoo has defaulted all the buttons to
the "Yes" option. To keep them from spamming you
--"with your authorization" -- you need to go to your
account page and check the "No" buttons.

Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and sign in. At
top-right of the page click on "Account Info." You
will be asked to confirm your password.

Once on your account page, scroll down to "Member
Information" and click on "Edit your marketing
preferences" (the link immediately below your email
addresses).

On the next page, you'll find a list of  "Special
Offers & Marketing Communications," followed by the
line "I would like to receive information about..."
and a list of services Yahoo is offering.
You'll also find all the "Yes" buttons checked.

=====
Annalee Newitz
tech * pop * sex
415.487.2559 - cell: 415.378.4498
www.techsploitation.com




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