Your Identity on Yahoo!

The first time you attempt to use a Yahoo! service, such as Yahoo! Mail or Yahoo! Groups, you’re asked to create a Yahoo! user identity—also known as your user name—and a password to use with this ID whenever you sign in to Yahoo!. You can use the same Yahoo! ID and password to access all Yahoo! products and services.

Note: Along with your ID, you automatically create a Yahoo! email address. In most cases, your Yahoo! ID and your Yahoo! email address are the same, such as adrian.jones@ymail.com or jacaranda2000@rocketmail.com. If your Yahoo! email address has the @yahoo.com domain, you can also use just the part of the address before @ as your Yahoo! ID. For example, if your email address is kris_strawberry@yahoo.com, you can use either kris_strawberry@yahoo.com or just kris_strawberry when you sign in to Yahoo!.

Information in Your Yahoo! Account

In addition to defining your email address and password, when you create your Yahoo! ID, you also supply some key personal information that gets stored as part of your new Yahoo! account. This information includes:

• Your first and last names
• Your gender
• Your birthdate
• Your country of residence
• Your postal code
• Your language and location preferences for Yahoo! content (for example, US English or Mexican Spanish)
• An alternate email address (for Yahoo! to use to contact you in case there’s a problem with your Yahoo! account)
• A security question that you choose and its answer

With the exception of your Yahoo! ID and your email address, all the information associated with your Yahoo! account can be changed anytime. Click here to learn how.

Who Can See My Yahoo! Account Information?

None of the personal information associated with your Yahoo! account is visible to other people. You can choose to share your email address and/or your Yahoo! ID with others if you want to receive email from them or communicate with them using Yahoo! Messenger.

How Can I Protect My Account Information?

To keep the personal information in your account safe, it’s important that you never share your password with anyone. We recommend that you change your password regularly, and especially if you suspect that someone else might know what it is.

There are a number of things you can do to avoid sharing your main email address and Yahoo! ID with people you’re not sure you can trust.

• Use a profile on Yahoo!. When you have a profile and make it public, other users can locate you online and even send you messages without having to know your email address. Learn more about profiles in the Getting Started With Your Profile on Yahoo! tutorial.

• Use an alias instead of your Yahoo! ID with Yahoo! Messenger and other properties, such as chat rooms or message boards. Click here to learn more about aliases.

• Use disposable email addresses. With this Yahoo! Mail Plus feature, you can create addresses for temporary use, such as signing on to web site, and then delete them when you don’t need them any more. Any email sent to these addresses goes into your regular Yahoo! Mail inbox. To learn more about disposable addresses, see the Using Disposable Addresses tutorial.

Here’s How

To access your account information:

1. Sign in to your profile on Yahoo!.

2. Click the Account Info tab.

   

3. Type your password to verify your identity, then click the Sign In button.

   

   Your Account Information page opens, where you can review and modify the personal information associated with your account.

   

To change your password:

For security reasons, it’s a good idea to change your password regularly.

1. Go to your account page, as described above.

2. On your account page, click the Change your password link in the Sign-In and Security section.

   

   After verifying your account, the Change Password page opens.

3. Type your current password in the Enter your Current Password box, your new password in the Choose a New Password box, and your new password again in the Confirm your New Password box, then click the Save button.

   

   The next time you sign in, be sure to use your new password.

   Note: Your new password applies to all Yahoo! properties, so you’ll need to remember it when you sign in to other services, such as Yahoo! Messenger or Yahoo! Music.

To change other account information:

1. Go to your Yahoo! account page, as described above.

2. Click the link to the information you want to change, for example, Update your contact information or Choose how Yahoo! contacts you.

   

3. Change whatever information you need to on the page that appears. For example, in the figure below, the user is changing the time zone associated with her account.

   

   Tip: To change the language and content for the Yahoo! products you use, select a language from the New Setting pull-down menu.
   
   

4. Click the Finished button when you’re done making your changes.

   

What’s Next

The public face of your identity on Yahoo! is represented by your profile.

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