In a world where we are all using technology companies, whether that be Yahoo!, or another email provider, we are entitled to have our expectation that when we permanently delete email content, it is not being stored on a server indefinitely without our knowledge and/or permission. Moreover, as user of a Yahoo! email account when we make enquiries with Yahoo! Online Customer Care we expect to be given truthful and accurate information.
On a day to day to basis lawyers, medics, company directors, teachers, celebrities and every conceivable company and/or person is using emails which will inevitably contain private, sensitive, personal details and/or information about business deals, transactions, contracts, contacts, trade secrets etc. The concern and obvious danger is that if Yahoo! is storing our deleted email content without our knowledge, why are they doing so? And, more importantly, to whom are they making it available without our knowledge and agreement?
But, why is Yahoo! providing two completely contradictory explanations as to what it can, or cannot, do in terms of its deleted data retention policies?
- On one hand Yahoo! states that its autosave facility allows deleted email content from a user’s account to be stored on its servers, until Yahoo! decides to delete the content from their servers – (“the mail server initiates a process to purge the server of that users messages; “email content may remain on Yahoo!’s mail server for a prolonged period of time after the user had deleted the email content”).
- On the other hand, however, Yahoo! Online Customer Care state they do not have the ability to retrieve the deleted email content after seven days of its deletion, which Yahoo! claim “isn’t possible in the current version of the product”.
So, which one is the truth?
Please sign this petition on behalf of email users worldwide in order to demand clarification and the truth from the Chief Executive Office at Yahoo! to the contradictory and misleading information Yahoo! has provided concerning what they do, and do not do, with our deleted email content. We, as a global community, have a right to know exactly what these companies are doing with our private, sensitive and personal email content, when we believe we have deleted it.
