[e-privacy] Hats of To Yahoo! Mail: Sticking to Its Privacy Policy Guns

[Andrea Glorioso]

http://research.yale.edu/lawmeme/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1668

Hats of To Yahoo! Mail: Sticking to Its Privacy Policy Guns
	
Posted by Rebecca Bolin on Tuesday, December 21 @ 12:07:02 EST 
	
The family of a dead marine is publicly demanding the password for his
Yahoo! mail account. "I want to be able to remember him in his words,"
his father claimed,  and to do this,  he  apparently needs  all e-mail
sent to and by his  son. Yahoo! is refusing,  sticking to its  Privacy
Policy, which terminates an account at death and is not sharing.

The Terms of Service closely mirror the  privacy policy in the limited
scenarios in which Yahoo! would disclose information:

    You acknowledge,  consent  and  agree   that Yahoo!   may  access,
    preserve, and disclose   your account information and   Content if
    required to do  so  by law or  in a  good faith belief   that such
    access preservation or disclosure  is reasonably necessary to: (a)
    comply  with legal process; (b)  enforce  the TOS;  (c) respond to
    claims that any Content violates the  rights of third-parties; (d)
    respond to your requests for customer service;  or (e) protect the
    rights, property, or personal safety of  Yahoo!, its users and the
    public.

The marine's father, obviously, has none of these reasons, although he
could appeal to the legal system. Go Yahoo! It has said to this family
that without  a  subpoena, they  get   no  private  information.  This
protects  all of us, and  allows  us to  trust that at  our deaths our
Yahoo! accounts stay private. Yahoo!   has decided (and hopefully  the
courts would also) that the marine was  the best to decide whether his
parents should get his password. This is a tricky  case for Yahoo! PR,
but an easy   one for Yahoo!  legal; honor  contracts and respect  the
privacy of users.

+++

Ciao,

--
Andrea Glorioso             sama at miu-ft.org         +39 333 820 5723
        .:: Media Innovation Unit - Firenze Tecnologia ::.
	      Conquering the world for fun and profit