Yahoo has clarified its position as part of a larger family of brands and outlined its data collection practices across its various platforms and applications. The company operates multiple well-known digital properties that millions of users interact with daily.
The Yahoo brand family encompasses several major websites and applications that the company owns and operates. These platforms include Yahoo itself, AOL, the technology news site Engadget, the lifestyle platform In The Know, and Makers.Yahoo. Each of these properties serves different audience segments while operating under Yahoo's broader corporate umbrella.
When users access these sites and applications, Yahoo utilizes cookies and similar technologies to enhance the user experience and maintain platform functionality. Cookies, which include related technologies such as web storage, enable website and application operators to store and retrieve information from users' devices. The company has established a comprehensive cookie policy that provides detailed information about these practices for users who want to understand how their data is handled.
Yahoo uses these cookies for multiple essential purposes across its platform ecosystem. The primary functions include providing access to their sites and applications, authenticating users to ensure secure access, implementing security measures to protect user accounts, and preventing spam and abuse that could compromise the user experience. These security features are crucial for maintaining the integrity of Yahoo's various platforms.
The company also employs cookies to measure and analyze user engagement across its properties. This measurement system tracks the number of visitors to their pages, identifies the types of devices users employ (specifically noting whether they use iOS or Android systems), determines which web browsers visitors prefer, and calculates how much time users spend on their websites and within their applications. This data collection process is designed to help Yahoo understand user behavior and improve their services accordingly.
Importantly, Yahoo emphasizes that all measurement data is collected in an aggregated format and is not linked to specific individual users. This approach allows the company to gather insights about overall usage patterns and trends while maintaining user privacy by avoiding the creation of detailed profiles tied to specific individuals.
