There seems to be some confusion about how Yahoo! Groups uses web beacons within Yahoo! Groups messages. We’d like to clarify this once and for all!

In 2000, Yahoo! added information in our Privacy Center about how we collect and use information from cookies and web beacons. Today, this kind of notice is commonplace in privacy policies for most well known Internet companies.

One of the most common uses for web beacons is in HTML-formatted messages (they are not used in text-based email, only email that looks like a web page or that includes graphical elements). Beacons are used to count how many messages are opened and how many links are clicked on as a way to measure how useful the email was. We use web beacons in Yahoo! Groups messages to understand Groups usage patterns in the aggregate and to gauge how many ads are viewed and clicked on as well as how many messages were opened and acted upon. These measurements are done in the aggregate and only use anonymous information. For example, if Yahoo! processes 10 million Groups email messages, we’d like to know if 5 million are opened and if 1 million ads within messages are clicked on. This is information we use to measure and understand advertising inventory and effectiveness within Yahoo! Groups. This is important because Yahoo! Groups is free to users because of the advertising we can offer within the messages.

Yahoo! was among the first companies to discuss web beacons and how they are used. It is also an industry standard practice to use web beacons in HTML email messages, as we do.

For more info on how we serve ads, you can read our policy on Ad Serving at Yahoo! For information on how we customize ads please visit our site on advertising customization.