Search Services

This page describes our current privacy practices for the Yahoo Search and Assistants brands, websites, features, products, apps, software and other services (“Search 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. This information may change as Yahoo revises our Search Services or Yahoo Shopping 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 or Yahoo Shopping.

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 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 Yahoo Search history.
  • When you use Yahoo Search, you may see relevant, private results selected from other sources, such as your Yahoo Mail. Only you can see your private search results when you’re signed in. Learn how to manage, including turning off, Private Results.
  • Some advertising you receive 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.
  • Yahoo Search uses image recognition algorithms to identify public figures, scenes, actions, or objects to make it easier to search images

Search Partners

  • A variety of third parties help provide search and search advertising results for Yahoo. Search advertising includes paid search and contextual search results. More than one search partner may be used at the same time 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 partners may also provide search widgets and other features to make your search experience better, such as easy access to information about concert tickets or nearby airline flights.
  • 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.
  • These partners 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.

Sponsored Search Results

  • Search results may consist of 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.

Other

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

Assistants

  • Yahoo Assistants are a 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 collect 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 fulfill 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.

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 

  • When you make a purchase from a merchant listed on Yahoo Shopping, the merchant will ask for information such as your name, billing and shipping address, 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 will 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 into the Yahoo Network you may comment on articles or other content. 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 you post will be displayed publicly along with your Yahoo ID or chosen nickname and profile picture or avatar.
  • You may also delete a comment you have posted by selecting the ‘delete’ option next to the comment you wish to remove.
  • Your comments are visible to you on the “My Comments” tab next to the commenting streams.

Last updated April, 2024