Search, Chat, and Shopping Services
This page describes our current privacy practices for Yahoo Search, Yahoo Chat (“Search and Chat Services”), and Yahoo Shopping. All information that is collected, provided to Yahoo, or stored in your Yahoo Account will be treated, used, and protected in accordance with the Yahoo Privacy Policy. As we revise our services by adding or removing features or using different service providers, these practices may change. Some features are only available to registered users. For any questions about these services, please visit Help.
Yahoo Search
Information Collection & Use Practices
- Search: When you conduct a search on a product or service that uses our search technology, we collect information from your experience, such as your search queries.
- Search Assist: This feature helps you find what you are looking for by automatically suggesting popular search terms and new topics based on aggregated searches and your individual search history.
- Search History: The Yahoo Search and Chat History tool allows you to see your past Search activities. Learn how to manage your Yahoo Search and Chat history.
- Privacy Results: When signed in, you may see relevant, private results from other sources, such as your Yahoo Mail. Only you can see these results. Learn how to manage, including turning off, Private Results.
- Customized Advertising: Some advertising you receive on Yahoo may be customized based on your searches, or related terms at Yahoo. Please visit your Dashboard & Controls to manage and learn more about the information used to personalize your Yahoo experience.
- Image Recognition: Yahoo Search uses image recognition algorithms to identify public figures, scenes, actions, or objects to make it easier to search images.
Search Partners
- Third-Party Involvement: Various third parties help provide search, and search advertising results for Yahoo. More than one search or search partner may be used simultaneously and may change based on factors such as type of online experience, type of device used, and the country the search is performed from. Search advertising includes paid search and contextual search results.
- Search Widgets: Search partners may also provide search widgets and features to make your search experience better, such as easy access to information about concert tickets or nearby airline flights.
- Information Sharing: We may share your search query, IP address, and other pseudonymous information from your web browser or app, such as a unique identifier for your web browser, with these search partners. They 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.
- Reformatted Results: We may reformat results provided by these search partners for an enhanced search experience.
Sponsored Search Results
- Paid Placement: Search results may include sites that have paid for placement. Learn more.
- Tracking URLs: Search results may contain tracking URLs provided by Yahoo Search Marketing and/or our search partners to identify clicks from the search results page.
European Residents
- URL Dereferencing: Users who are European residents can request that certain URLs be dereferenced against a Yahoo Search for their name in certain circumstances in Yahoo Search domains across EEA/UK.
Yahoo Chat
Yahoo Chat provides an AI-powered chat service offering more conversational and detailed responses to general queries than traditional search services. Due to the nature of AI technology, unforeseen responses or errors may occur.
Information Collection & Use Practices
- Device and Experience Information: When you use Yahoo Chat, we collect information from your device and experience, including your queries and the responses provided.
- Response Links: Responses may include links to information sources and suggested follow-up queries. Clicking these links may redirect you away from Yahoo sites and apps.
- Service Analysis and Improvement: Yahoo uses your Chat information to analyze engagement, improve our services and features, secure our products and services, and optimize performance.
- Chat History: The Yahoo Chat History control available within Chat shows your recent queries. If you delete queries using the in-product control, they are removed from display and will no longer be used for product features. However, depending on your privacy settings, Yahoo may continue to use those Chat queries to personalize your ads or content.
- Customized Advertising: Some advertising you receive on Yahoo may be customized based on your queries in Chat. Please visit your Dashboard & Controls to manage and learn more about the information used to personalize your Yahoo experience.
- Exclusions: Our Chat services do not include customer service chatbots or other interfaces for Yahoo account information inquiries.
- Microsoft Copilot: The Microsoft Copilot chat solution powers Yahoo Chat. Microsoft may ask for your feedback about how the Microsoft Copilot services are performing in Yahoo Chat. Feedback you provide to Microsoft will be used in accordance with their Privacy Statement,
- Microsoft’s Limited Use: Other than your feedback, Microsoft is limited in its ability to retain and use your information.
Yahoo Shopping
Yahoo Shopping allows access to thousands of merchants and products in one place. You do not need to be a registered user to make purchases.
Information Collection and Use Practices
- Purchases: When making a purchase, the merchant will ask for your personal information. Each merchant receives your personal and order information directly. Yahoo Shopping does not see, collect, store, or use this information. Each merchant is solely responsible for their use of your information.
- PriceGrabber: PriceGrabber powers Yahoo Shopping. For more information on how PriceGrabber collects and uses your information, please visit the PriceGrabber Privacy Policy.
Comments
- Posting Comments: Users logged in to the Yahoo Network can comment. Your profile is linked to your comments, and your display name and profile photo are visible to other users.|
- Deleting Comments: You can delete a comment you have posted by selecting the ‘delete’ option next to the comment you wish to remove.
- Viewing Your Comments: Your comments are visible to you on the “My Comments” tab next to the commenting streams.
Last updated September, 2024