Ad Serving

Advertising is a core part of Yahoo’s business. Many of our free brands, websites, apps, advertising services, products, services or technologies (“Services”) are supported by the ads we and others display. We also provide a variety of online advertising services to other companies that want to place ads on our Services or elsewhere.

Yahoo displays ads both on our owned and operated Services and on non-Yahoo sites, apps, and services. Yahoo serves display ads, also known as graphical ads, which appear as images, animation, or video. Yahoo also serves text ads that appear as text links. Yahoo’s advertising platforms provide the means for advertisers, agencies, publishers, and ad networks to manage their advertising business.

Ad Selection

  • Ads are more effective when they are shown to people who are likely to be interested in the product or service advertised. For this reason, we use the information we collect and receive to help us select which ads to show you.
  • We may select these ads based on the content of the page or app on which they appear. For instance, if you are viewing a news article about a recently released album, Yahoo may show you an ad for a music store that sells albums. Similarly, ads in finance content may be related to financial services. These kinds of ads are sometimes called “contextual ads.”
  • Other ads we select may be based on information we have collected or received about activities and interests on websites and apps used on your device and other associated devices. These ads are sometimes called “interest-based ads.” Some interest-based ads are based only on an isolated online activity, such as if you were to go to an online bookstore and view a particular novel. The bookseller might want to show you an ad for that novel because you’re probably more interested in buying it than the average online user. This kind of interest-based advertising is sometimes called “retargeting” or “remarketing.”
  • Other interest-based ads are shown based on your online activities over time and across different websites and apps used on your various devices. We may collect information about your online activities in this way in order to make predictions about what products or services might be of interest to you. Based on these predictions, we and other companies may categorize you as belonging to a “segment” of users to which advertisers may be interested in showing ads. For example, if you’ve recently visited a car dealer’s website, you might be grouped in an “Auto Intenders” segment, and a car dealer who places ads with us might want us to show ads to the users who are in this segment. You can view a list of certain categories for advertising. Please note the listed categories do not include custom categories, such as those created by a specific advertiser.
  • We also select ads to show you based on other information you provide or that we collect from other sources, such as your gender, age or location, searches you conduct, or what your friends or contacts recommend to you, apps on the device, or based on your other interests.

Data Use To Provide More Relevant Advertising

As explained above, we use the data we collect or receive about you to help us show ads for products or services that you are likely to be interested in and make the advertising we serve more effective.

Yahoo may use information you provide or that it receives, including information that on its own could reasonably identify you, to tailor ads when you use our Services or the services of others. Yahoo may also analyze your use of our Services, including your engagement with the ads we show you, to improve the effectiveness of our advertising platforms, limit the number of times you see the same ad, and measure the effectiveness of the specific ads we serve.

  • When showing you ads on a search results page, information about your browsing behavior and your search query may be used to display more relevant ads. For more information about how your search queries may be used to display more relevant ads, visit the Search privacy page.
  • Yahoo's systems may analyze all content (including email and messenger communications) to match and serve targeted advertising.
  • Yahoo may tailor ads based on location. For more information about how Yahoo uses location information, please visit our Yahoo Location privacy page.
  • Yahoo may use information you provide, such as your age or gender, to tailor ads when you are logged in or if you have stored this information with an Yahoo Service (even if you are logged out). Yahoo may also use this information, including personally identifiable information, to tailor ads when you are using our Services.
  • Yahoo uses a variety of tools, including, but not limited to, IP Addresses, web beacons, SDKs, cookies, and similar technologies, to support Yahoo advertising services. Visit our Technical Identifiers page for more information.
  • Yahoo may tailor ads to you based on people you have connected with and their demonstrated or declared interests.
  • Yahoo may personalize ads to you based upon activities of accounts and devices associated with you.
  • Yahoo may target, serve, and measure advertisements on third party websites to browsers with limited cookie support, such as those enabled with Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP) or similar cookie-blocking technology. In such cases, the information used may be derived from information collected on Yahoo owned and operated products or third party web sites and applications. Yahoo may also use its graph and targeting technologies to assist or enhance our partner’s advertising capabilities with regards to the targeting, serving, and measurement of ads, including Real Time Bidding (RTB) contexts. Because these cookie-blocking technologies may interfere with some of your opt-out choices, you may need to use the Yahoo Across the Web opt-out located in the Yahoo Privacy Dashboard in order to opt out of such targeting.
  • Yahoo may target and serve advertisements to interactive devices, such as Smart or Connected TVs or “OTT” devices. Yahoo offers users choices to opt-out of targeted advertising when serving advertisements to such interactive devices, even if the interactive device or platform does not support such features. In order to opt-out of targeted advertising, use either of the Device Linking or Yahoo Across the Web controls (both located in the Privacy Dashboard) from any cookie enabled browser that is connected to your home network. Within 48 hours, your opt-out preferences will be honored on all interactive devices connected to the same home network. Please note that you may need to opt-out again if you connect to a different network or reset your network settings. Alternatively, you may exercise the privacy controls available in the settings provided by your Smart/Connected TV manufacturer. For detailed instructions on using the privacy controls for most major Connected TVs and OTT devices, visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s Connected TV Choices page.
  • We use data that we receive from other sources to help us provide more effective advertising. For example, we may use data that is available from public or commercial sources and combine it with other data we have collected or received about a user or the user’s device for these purposes.
  • We do not use, or allow others to use, sensitive financial account number data or other sensitive data (in determining what constitutes sensitive data, we follow applicable law, and in the absence of such law, we follow NAI guidance) to determine eligibility for health insurance, life insurance, or employment. We also do not target ads to users based on sensitive health data, including cancer, mental health-related conditions, and sexually-related areas.
  • Where permitted by law and depending on available user choices, if a user appears interested in health-related topics that are not considered sensitive under NAI guidance (such as by visiting pages related to such a topic) an ad relevant to those interests may be displayed. We also may display such health-related ads to users who we or our advertisers believe may be an appropriate audience for such topics. For example, a user who is of childbearing age or views several pages related to newborns and parenting might later be shown an ad for diapers. Similarly, where permissible, a user who lives in an area with high prevalence of diabetes or high blood pressure, or who views content related to diabetes or high blood pressure might later be shown related ads. See our Standard Categories.

More Information

Your Choices

Learn more about your choices.

QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

If you have questions, suggestions, or complaints, please complete a feedback form or you can contact us at:

Yahoo
Customer Care - Privacy Policy Issues
770 Broadway, New York
NY 10003, USA