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Yahoo! Inc. provides a broad range of communication, sharing, and information and content services. Its services include the search platform Yahoo Search, communication and collaboration tools including Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger, and Yahoo Groups, digital content through Yahoo.com, Yahoo Sports, and Yahoo Finance, advertising services, and multiple other services and properties.
IndustryInternet Software and Services
DomicileUnited States
Market CapUSD 31,414 million
Stock SymbolNasdaqGS: YHOO
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Operating company evaluated:
A founding member of the Global Network Initiative (GNI), Yahoo received the second highest overall score in the Index, behind Google and slightly ahead of Microsoft. The company’s disclosures related to freedom of expression and privacy are overseen by the Yahoo Business and Human Rights Program, established in 2008 to help integrate human rights-related decision-making into the company’s business operations.
Yahoo placed second, behind Microsoft and ahead of Google, on disclosed commitments to respect users’ freedom of expression and privacy rights and measures to implement those commitments. It received the highest score for human rights impact assessments (C4). On indicator (C2), which examined governance and management oversight, the company lost points due to lack of board-level oversight. A shareholder resolution calling for the creation of a board committee that would exercise formal oversight over human rights issues, including freedom of expression and privacy, was opposed by the board, on the grounds that such a committee is “not necessary or advisable and would involve making regular BHRP update to a subset of the board, rather than to the full Board, as is Yahoo’s current practice.” Like all of its peers, the company has much room for improvement on grievance and remedy mechanisms (C6).
Yahoo placed fourth among Internet companies on Freedom of Expression, behind Google, Kakao, and Twitter.
User notification about content restriction: Yahoo’s commitment to notify users when it restricts content or accounts (F5) was weaker than a number of its peers. While publicly available company policies mentioned user notification related to copyright infringement, we found no publicly available information about notification for other reasons, such as enforcement of terms of service.
Transparency about requests for content restriction: Disclosure about the company’s process for responding to third-party requests (F6) was much weaker for Tumblr than for other Yahoo services, thus bringing down the company’s overall score on that indicator. In contrast, disclosure about private requests (F8) was stronger for Tumblr than almost any other service evaluated in the Index, but was minimal for Flickr. This caused the company’s overall score to be lower than Kakao and Google. Transparency about government requests to restrict content (F7) was approximately on par with Kakao but far behind Google.
Yahoo placed third among Internet companies on Privacy, just ahead of Twitter and slightly behind Microsoft.
Handling of user information: Of special note is Tumblr’s approach to posting changes to their privacy policy (P2) through the GitHub versioning system – this is a novel and interesting approach to document changes. Yahoo tied with Kakao for highest score on disclosures about sharing of user information (P4) although at 51 percent of the total possible score, much room remains for improvement. On disclosures about what user information the company collects (P3), Yahoo scored 7-14 percentage points behind several of its peers and 27 percentage points behind this indicator’s leader, Kakao. Yahoo provides fewer options for users to control the collection and sharing of information (P5) than many of its peers.
Yahoo falls short of Google and Facebook in enabling users to access to their own information (P6). Its disclosure about retention of user information (P7) falls well short of Twitter, the Index leader for that particular indicator. Like many of its peers, Yahoo has much room for improvement in disclosures about what user information it collects from third parties (P8). While it is encouraging to see that Yahoo supports the “Do Not Track” standard for the Firefox browser, companies can only receive credit in this Index for supporting the standard universally.
Transparency about requests for user data: When examining the company’s transparency about requests for user data, Yahoo’s performance was strong but not in the lead. In the overall Index, it came in fourth behind Google, Microsoft, and AT&T in transparency about its process for responding to third-party requests for user data (P9). However it is notable that on P9, Tumblr was the only service of any company whose disclosure clearly states that the company does not entertain requests without valid subpoena, search warrant, or other government order. Yahoo leads the Index in notifying users about third-party requests for user data (P10), thanks particularly to the strength of Tumblr’s disclosure. In reporting information about third-party requests for user data (P11), Yahoo placed third in the Index overall behind Twitter and just one percentage point behind Google.
Security: Yahoo’s disclosures about security practices (P12) were dragged down by weaker disclosure from Tumblr. Similarly, Yahoo Mail and Flickr were exemplary at user education about potential threats (P14), but Tumblr, less so. The company provides no options for encryption of user content (P13), which is especially important for email. Even though the company has unveiled plans to implement PGP encryption, it hasn’t rolled this out as a built-in feature to all Yahoo users yet.
