Yahoo and AOL Just Gave Themselves the Right to Read Your E-mails (again)

C|Net (April 13, 2018) reports that Yahoo and AOL just gave themselves the right to read your emails (again). Oath, the media division of Verizon that runs both AOL and Yahoo, is finally unifying the privacy policy of its two giant legacy Internet brands. That means an updated set of privacy terms and policies for hundreds of millions of users. To be clear, Yahoo's previous privacy policy had already stated that Yahoo "analyzes and stores all communications content, including email content," so the company has previously disclosed that it's been able to scan the contents of your emails, at least. (AOL's legacy privacy policy doesn't say anything like that.)

 

 

To protect the content of your personal communications it is essential that you encrypt your e-mail. You may choose to use a 'privacy focused' e-mail or encryption service, and/or you may choose to use a method (such as GnuPG / PGP - Pretty Good Privacy) to encrypt the content of your e-mail before you send it. Regardless of what encryption method you choose, if you don't encrypt your e-mail it can be read by anyone.