Yahoo! Desktop Search Beta

Yahoo! Desktop Search Beta is a program you can install on your computer to index and search the contents of your PC. You do not need to be a registered Yahoo! user to use Yahoo! Desktop Search Beta. It is currently only available for computers running the Windows operating system.

Yahoo! Desktop has three major components: a crawler which builds an index of the content in your computer, a local web server which displays the user interface in a browser, and the deskbar which is a taskbar toolbar.

Information Collection and Use Practices

• Yahoo! Desktop Search creates an index of your computer files and email. This information is stored on your computer only and is not sent back to Yahoo!
  • Visit the Yahoo! Desktop Search Settings to control what you do and do not want indexed. You can reach Settings from a link at the top right corner of your Yahoo! Desktop browser window or by right mouse clicking the taskbar menu.
• Yahoo! Desktop Search automatically checks for updates to Yahoo! software.
• When you are online, click data related to your use of the Yahoo! Software is sent to Yahoo! to help us identify issues and evaluate how the Yahoo! Software is being used.
  • The click data sent to Yahoo! may include the following additional information: version number; a unique identifier that allows us to distinguish between different computers using the Yahoo! Software, number of searches and size of your computer file and email index (number of files indexed, type of files indexed, and total size of the index).
  • Neither the click data nor the additional information sent to Yahoo! contains any personally identifiable information.
• If Yahoo! Desktop Search experiences errors, the system will automatically generate an email and attach a log file to send to Yahoo! for analysis. These log files include relevant system configuration information, error messages, and a unique identifier that allows us to distinguish between different computers using Yahoo! Desktop Search. We use this information to help diagnose and resolve the problems. This email will contain your email address as the sender of the email.
  • In certain cases, these log files may include path names to affected files when a crash occurs.
• If Yahoo! Yahoo! Desktop Search identifies which programs, folders, and files have most recently been opened. These are displayed on the front page of Yahoo! Desktop Search.
  • Yahoo! Desktop Search keeps track of which programs, folders, and files you open most often, stores this information only on your local system, and displays those on the Browse Favorites page.
• Yahoo! Desktop Search keeps a history of searches you make using the tool. You can clear this by choosing Clear Search from the deskbar menu.
• If you search the web, your browser will contact Yahoo! web servers and provide you search results from Yahoo! Search.

Information Sharing and Disclosure Practices

• The contents of your computer, including the index created by Yahoo! Desktop Search, are not shared with Yahoo! or anybody else without your consent. In the future, we may offer you the opportunity to host your index on our servers so you may search it from any computer or device. If so, similar to your email and personal communication, it will be kept confidential.
• The index created by Yahoo! Desktop Search is not shared between accounts on the same computer. If your computer has two accounts, then two indexes will be created.
• The index will only contain the IM persona of the individual logged in at the time of the install.
• The index will contain all Outlook personas but only the default persona for Outlook Express. If your Outlook stores are protected by password, Yahoo! Desktop Search will prompt you for your password for each. This information is not transmitted to Yahoo! and is only used to access the files locally for indexing purposes.

Practices Regarding Your Ability to Update or Delete Information

• You can uninstall Yahoo! Desktop Search from the Start Menu
  • Start Menu - Control Panel - Add or Remove Programs
  • When you uninstall Yahoo! Desktop Search, you will be given an option to remove or retain the index on your computer.

Other

• Your use of Yahoo! Desktop Search is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
• Please see Yahoo! Desktop Search Help if you have questions about this service.