Yahoo! Messenger allows you to exchange instant messages and PC-to-PC voice calls with your online friends. You must be a registered Yahoo! user in order to use Yahoo! Messenger. Yahoo! Messenger establishes a connection to the Internet when it is active -- much like a browser does -- in order for communications to be received and transmitted.
Information Collection and Use Practices
- Yahoo! Messenger automatically checks for updates to Yahoo! software.
- You can establish a friend list within your Messenger and be added as a friend to others members' lists.
- By default your online status will be visible to other Messenger members who have you on their friends list and on web pages with an online presence indicator.
- You can choose to appear offline by signing in as Invisible.
- You can selectively appear online or offline to specific friends or groups of friends on Messenger using the Stealth Settings option.
- You can choose to always appear offline on web pages by editing your preferences in Messenger or Yahoo! Profiles:
- In Messenger, choose Messenger > Preferences > Privacy and uncheck the box to allow Yahoo! web sites to show when you are online.
- In Yahoo! Profiles, check the box to hide your online status from other users.
- You have certain choices about whether to add friends, be added as a friend, or ignore other members. Adding someone to your ignore list will also ignore PC-to-PC calls and related voice messages from that person.
- By default any other member using Messenger may send you PC-to-PC calls. You can change your preferences so that you only receive calls from members on your friends list.
- Yahoo! does not save your instant messages but we do make some functionality, such as archiving and the ability to print and save messages, available to members. As such, it is possible they may retain records of their instant messaging communications with you.
- By default, Yahoo! Messenger will archive your message history for the current session, until you sign out. When that that session ends, the message archive will be deleted.
- To change your archiving preferences in Messenger, choose Messenger > Preferences > Archive
- Changing your archiving preferences does not clear your current archive. For example, if you previously archived all messages indefinitely and change your preference to save messages until you sign out, then you will need to press the Clear Archive Now button for your previous archive to be cleared.
- Please be aware that even if you choose not to save your message history, members you correspond with may opt to use the functionality available in their version of Messenger to save the communications.
- Yahoo! does not save voice communications that go through our servers however the voice mails you record for other members are stored on our servers but we do not use the content of those voice mail messages.
- Messenger stores a PC-to-PC call history on your computer. You can review the PC-to-PC call history in Messenger by choosing Contacts > Voice Messages & Call History.
- Messenger gives you the opportunity to report instant messages you receive as spam. If you choose to report spam, Yahoo! will be sent information about the conversation including the Yahoo! ID of the member being reported, text of the conversation, and your Yahoo! ID.
- Messenger automatically identifies phone numbers and email addresses included in messages so you can quickly save them to your Yahoo! Address Book or take other actions, such as sending an email. This is a function carried out by the Messenger client on your computer and is not done by Yahoo! servers.
- When you invite someone to use Messenger using our form (as opposed to add someone as a friend to your friend list), you will need to provide that person's email address and a message (optional). Information collected on that form will only be used to send an email on your behalf and will not be used for any marketing purposes.
Information Sharing and Disclosure Practices
- By using Yahoo! Messenger, you may choose to make some of your personal information public or you may choose to share some of your personal information with others.
- If you post personal information online that is accessible to the public, you may receive unsolicited messages from other parties in return.
- Messenger sometimes uses a peer-to-peer connection during its operation, including times when you may be using it for instant messaging (text conversations), file sharing, PC-to-PC calling and webcam streaming. Peer-to-peer means that your computer connects directly to the other user's computer in the conversation without needing to go through Yahoo! servers. As such, your IP address is available to users with whom you share a peer-to-peer connection.
Practices Regarding Your Ability to Update or Delete Information
- You can edit your Messenger settings and preferences through the Messenger menu.
- To review and delete your PC-to-PC call history or voice messages in Messenger choose Contacts > Voice Messages & Call History.
Other
This page describes current Yahoo! practices with respect to this particular service. This information may change as Yahoo! revises this service by adding or removing features or using different service providers.
Last updated: May 18, 2005
