Anyone who has a Yahoo email account will be forced to migrate to the new version that will scan emails today.
Despite the apprehension of their mailbox users, Yahoo pushed through with the changes today. Users will not be asked to choose whether they would like to migrate or not because Yahoo is not giving them any choice. All email accounts will be migrated to the new version which will scan each and every email of the user to target ads.
According to comScore, an American Internet analytics company providing marketing data and analytics, Yahoo has over 282 million active email users as of October 2012. This means all those are being scanned today.
I logged in to check out my Yahoomail account and didn't see any significant change but there were some users who questioned Yahoo for privacy concerns. According to the new terms of service, Yahoo must be given permission to "scan and analyze all incoming and outgoing communications content sent and received from your account."
Prior this day, Yahoo sent an email to its users informing them of the changes that take effect today. Here is an excerpt.
"Beginning the week of June 3, 2013, older versions of Yahoo! Mail (including Yahoo! Mail Classic) will no longer be available. After that, you can access your Yahoo! Mail only if you upgrade to the new version. When you upgrade, you will be accepting our Communications Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. This includes the acceptance of automated content scanning and analyzing of your communications content."
Users will be prompted to opt out of contextual ads by using the Yahoo Ads Manager but still, the scan will push through.
So what other choices do users have if they don't like the new policy? Well, the only choice is to close their account. Those who have a premium account will receive a prorated refund.
