[PAA-Discuss] PAA e-mail lists/problems, Yahoo, privacy

[Bill Crosier]

Paul Myers has asked me several times, since we started having 
problems with our e-mail lists, why PAA does not use Yahoo groups for 
our e-mail lists.  I've replied several times that the main reasons 
are their privacy policy and their advertising.  I've also explained 
that I've never registered with Yahoo and don't plan to do so, 
because of their privacy policy.

I'm sorry I don't have time to go through all of Yahoo's privacy 
policy (and the many links it includes, which are effectively 
incorporated therein by reference) and explain why I and a number of 
other people don't like it.

You can read Yahoo's privacy policy at 
http://privacy.yahoo.com/privacy/us/  Be sure to read the linked 
info, too, if you are interested in it.

I'll give just two examples of the problems with Yahoo e-mail lists:

1.  Yahoo has its own "privacy" policy but does not control its 
advertisers' privacy policies and basically lets them do whatever 
they want (at least, that's what it sounds like to me).  So even 
Yahoo's limited so-called privacy doesn't apply to them.

2.  Yahoo allows advertisers to embed web beacons in their ads, which 
they insert into e-mails sent to Yahoo lists.  This allows the 
***advertisers*** (not just Yahoo) to know when each e-mail 
containing each ad was read, and the IP address of the computer used 
to read the message.  Now imagine, for example, a local Houston 
company involved in war profiteering that wanted to know who was 
getting messages on our e-mail lists.  All they'd have to do would be 
to put an ad for some innocuous product in the Yahoo e-mails and it 
would be simple for them to get the info they want.  (This is one of 
the reasons why I ask people to please delete all ads from messages 
that you forward to our lists.)

I realize, and hope all of you do, that the government can spy on us 
and read just about any e-mails they want with little restraint, and 
some of the big companies like AT&T will probably help them.  But I 
don't see any point in helping advertisers.

Sarah Gonzales & Charlie Lindahl, who handle most of the technical 
details with our web site and e-mail lists, plan to move our e-mail 
lists to another server after the Nov. 7 elections.  I apologize for 
the delay and am personally frustrated by some of the problems we are 
having (which affect me, too), but we're doing as well as we can with 
volunteers doing all the work.   And right now the bigger priority 
for Sarah, Charlie, and me is to help get some different people 
elected on Nov. 7 and after that I hope we can get our e-mail 
problems fixed.

Thanks.

Bill

-- 
Bill Crosier
paa at crosierbiomed.com     713-641-4941
Progressive Action Alliance         http://progressiveactionalliance.org/
Lying, Spying, Torture... IMPEACH!  http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/