Web Beacons

Web pages may contain an electronic file called a web beacon, that allow a web site to count users who have visited that page or to access certain cookies. Yahoo! uses web beacons in the following ways:

Within the Yahoo! Network

• Yahoo! uses web beacons within the Yahoo! network of web sites in order to count users and to recognise registered users by accessing Yahoo! cookies.
• Being able to access Yahoo! cookies allows us to personalise your experience when you visit Yahoo! web sites that are located both on and off of the yahoo.com domain.

Outside the Yahoo! Network

• Yahoo! uses web beacons to conduct research on behalf of certain partners on their web sites and also for auditing purposes.
• Information recorded through these web beacons is used to report anonymous individual and/or aggregate information about Yahoo! users to our partners. Aggregate information may include demographic and usage information. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with partners from this research.
• When conducting research that collects personal information, Yahoo!'s practice is to require our partners to disclose the presence of these web beacons in their privacy policies and state what choices are available to users regarding the collection and use of this information. You may choose to opt out of Yahoo! collecting and using this information.

HTML Mail

• Yahoo!'s practice is to include web beacons in HTML-formatted email messages (messages that include graphics) that Yahoo! or its agents send in order to determine which email messages were opened and to note whether a message was acted upon

In general, any file served as part of a web page, including an ad banner, can act as a web beacon. Yahoo! may also include web beacons from third parties and affiliates within pages served by Yahoo! so that Yahoo!'s advertisers may receive auditing, research and reporting.