Yahoo has come up with a new way to make space for new users—“recycle” old e-mail addresses. This move has sparked some privacy concerns, according to CNN.com.
Jay Rossiter, senior vice president of platforms for Yahoo, explained the move through the Yahoo! Tumblr account.
If a Yahoo email address has not been used for 12 months, it will be reset and available to anyone who wants to use it.
"If you're like me, you want a Yahoo! ID that's short, sweet, and memorable like albert@yahoo.com instead of albert9330399@yahoo.com," Rossiter wrote.
“In mid July, anyone can have a shot at scoring the Yahoo! ID they want. In mid August, users who staked a claim on certain IDs can come to Yahoo! to discover which one they got,” he added.
If you are a Yahoo user and think you haven’t used your account in a year or longer, you have until July 15 to sign in.
The move is part of an initiative by Yahoo—which is now run by CEO Marissa Mayer—to get back older users and keep give everyday users an incentive to stay.
However, security gurus are not thrilled about the idea.
Security analyst Graham Cluey was very blunt in his blog:
"In short: as an idea it sucks, and it shows Yahoo's lack of respect to customers who created accounts with them in years gone by," he wrote.
Graham lists a few situations in which the move is a bad idea. One includes when a person uses their Yahoo account as a back-up email address for security purposes or if a password is lost. He said people could lose old emails and documents that they might have stored in the back-up Yahoo email.
Matt Honan of CNN partner Wired—who was subject to hacking recently—called the move “a spectacularly bad idea.”
Yahoo, becoming aware of the security complaints, released a statement saying they are sure they will be able to avoid compromising security.
"We're committed and confident in our ability to do this in a way that's safe, secure and protects our users' data," the company said.
Yahoo added that most Yahoo ID’s don’t have a mailbox and personal data will be deleted from the recycled accounts.
During a deactivation period, that will last for 30 days, people who email the deactivated address will receive emails that the account is no longer in use. The deactivated accounts will stop receiving newsletters, ads and alerts.
Organizations who regularly send emails—financial institutions, social networks, and businesses—will be notified of deactivated email addresses.
