Search Services

This policy describes our current privacy practices for the Yahoo Search and Assistants brands, websites, features, products, apps, software and other services (“Search Services”).  All information that is collected, given to Yahoo or stored in your Yahoo Account will be treated, used and protected in accordance with the Yahoo Privacy Policy. This information may change as Yahoo revises these Search Services by adding or removing features, or using different service providers. Some features are only available if you are a registered user. Please visit Help if you have questions about these Search Services.

This page describes specific privacy practices with respect to Yahoo Search, Yahoo Assistants and Yahoo Shopping. Additional information is included for certain Search Services listed below. 

Yahoo Search 

Information Collection & Use Practices

Search

  • When you conduct a search on a product or service that uses our search technology, we may collect information from your experience, such as your search queries.
  • Search Assist helps you find what you are looking for by automatically offering popular search terms and new topics to consider. Search Assist may base suggestions on aggregated searches across all users and your individual search history.
  • The Yahoo search history tool allows you to see what you've searched for in the past. Learn how to manage your search history tool.
  • When you use Yahoo Search, you may see relevant, private results selected from other sources, such as your Yahoo Mail account. Only you can see your private search results when you’re signed in. Learn how to manage, including turning off, private results.
  • Some advertising that you receive may be customised based on your searches or related terms at Yahoo. Please visit our Opt-out page to learn more about the information used to personalise your search experience. If you opt out, you may continue to see the ads that Yahoo serves on these websites, but they won’t be customised to your interests or search history.
  • Visit the Search preferences page to manage your Yahoo Search experience, including safe search, search history and private results.
  • Yahoo Search may use image recognition algorithms to identify public figures, scenes, actions or objects to make it easier to search images.

Search Partners

  • A variety of third-party providers help power Yahoo search and sponsored search services.
  • We may share your search query, IP address, and other depersonalized information from your web browser or app, such as a unique identifier for your web browser, with these search partners.
  • These third party providers may use this information, as well as your search results clicks, to provide more relevant advertising and search results, for search product improvement, research and analysis, and to help detect and defend against fraudulent activity on sponsored or contextual search results.
  • We may reformat results provided by these search partners to provide an enhanced search experience to you.
  • To learn more about the data collection and use practices by these search partners, please visit our Third parties page.

Sponsored Search Results

  • Search results may include sites that have paid for placement in the search results. Learn more.
  • Search results may contain tracking URLs provided by Yahoo Search marketing and/or our Search partners to identify clicks from the search results page.  

 Assistants 

  • Yahoo Assistants are a new category of products and services using artificial intelligence guided by humans. These include chat bots operating in messenger platforms, virtual personal assistants and stand-alone apps accessed on Yahoo or through third-party apps and services. Assistants may collection information about you in a manner different from other search technologies. 
  • Yahoo Assistants may interact and converse with you to answer questions, help complete tasks or perform other activities. Assistants rely on our personnel and automated systems to respond to questions or instructions from users.   
  • We may collect information about you when you use our Assistants, including your conversations and interactions with the Assistant, your Yahoo ID and information associated with your account. 
  • We may also collect information provided by a third-party (including apps, messaging platforms and other services) interacting with our Assistants, which could include: your account information with the third-party, such as user ID, name, photo, phone number, email address; and device information such as device ID, device type, operating system, and mobile carrier.   
  • Yahoo’s personnel and our automated systems may have access to all communications content as it is sent, received, and when it is stored, in order to fulfil your requests, further product and services development, and provide personalized experiences and advertising through Yahoo’s products and services.  
  • When you are communicating with our Assistants through a third-party, please read that company’s privacy policy to better understand what information it may retain and for what purposes.
  • Location information collected through the Yahoo Assistants may not appear in the Location Management page.

Other

  • Users who are European residents can request for certain URLs to be blocked from search results in certain circumstances.

Yahoo Shopping

  • Yahoo Shopping allows you to access thousands of merchants and products in one place. To make a purchase from a merchant listed on Yahoo Shopping, you are not required to be a registered user.
  • PriceGrabber powers the functionality of Yahoo Shopping. For more information on how PriceGrabber collects and uses your information, please visit the PriceGrabber Privacy Policy.

Information collection and use practices

Purchases

  • We may use your Yahoo Shopping queries and Yahoo Shopping browsing history to customise your experience and provide you with ads that may be of more interest to you. We show you your Yahoo Shopping queries and Yahoo Shopping browsing history made within the past 60 days in the recent activity module. To disable recent activity, select “Off” in the top right-hand corner of the module. To clear your Yahoo Shopping browsing history, select “Clear all” in the top right-hand corner of the module. To learn more about your ability to opt out of interest-based advertising, click here. To learn more about how the recent activity module works, click here.
  • When you make a purchase from a merchant listed on Yahoo Shopping, the merchant may ask for information such as your name, billing and shipping addresses, email address, telephone number and credit card information. Please refer to the privacy policy of each individual merchant to learn how they use and store your information.
  • Each merchant from whom you make a purchase may receive your personal and order information directly. Yahoo Shopping does not see, collect, store or use this information in any way.
  • Each merchant is solely responsible for their use of your personal and order information.

Comments

  • When signed in to the Yahoo Network, you can comment on user reviews. When you comment, your profile is linked to that content and your display name and profile photo are visible to other users.
  • You must be a logged-in, registered user to post a comment.
  • Comments that you post will be displayed publicly along with your Yahoo ID or chosen nickname and your profile picture or avatar.
  • You can also delete a comment that you have posted by selecting the ‘delete’ option next to the comment that you wish to remove.
  • You can check your comments on the ‘My comments’ tab next to the commenting streams.