[SOLVED] Does Yahoo track my internet traffic ?

Nov 6, 2019
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I like to keep my yahoo email open but I've heard that yahoo can track my internet activity if I have it open?

Edited for clarification: I don't use yahoo search engine and don't have a yahoo account other then email. I use duckduckgo with FireFox. Yet yahoo seems to know what I am searching for or which products I am looking at anyway. I read that as long as I have yahoo email open, yahoo can track my web traffic. Sounds wrong but ?
 
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Slightly different, but this happened to me personally.

Work PC and home PC.
At work, searching for Product X. Something I had never, ever searched for before. Ever, anywhere.
Using IE and google.com. Specifically NOT signed in to a google account, never ever on that system.
Similarly, was not logged in to an Amazon account at that time.
Google returns multiple links for Product X.
I did not click on any of those links.

Later that day, at home.
Open my Amazon account.
"Would you like to buy Product X?"

Remember, this was a class of product I had never ever searched for, on any platform.

I had previously (months previous) logged in to my Amazon account from the work system, and obviously the home system.

The Amazon result in the...
It tracks you just as much as google or bing tracks your search history. It simply saves and builds a profile on your searches along with cookies that see what you're searching up on amazon, ebay, etc so it can show you deals from those sites from products you'll most likely buy. This is nothing new and has been going on with every major search engine. You can keep it open, it's not like there's an actual person reading a list of all your searches and they definitely can't see what you're looking at in real-time/remotely. It's all AI based.

If you don't like this then you'll have to stop using common internet browsers and search engines altogether.

Sites like startpage or duckduckgo are private search engines that don't track your history. And as for browsers, Firefox, iridium or tor are 3 major private and secure browsers that don't track you.

Though in the end I personally don't care. There are billions of people on the internet and being a small drop in this massive ocean I find my search data to be a moot point of a breach in my security. Google can do whatever they want with my search history, as long as they like weird stuff. Besides I have come across pretty good computer deals because of these ads, so they work to an extent.
 
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Nov 6, 2019
20
0
10
I am sorry, I apparently didn't ask my question clear enough. I realize that google and yahoo track your search history when you use their search engines. I don't use yahoo search engine but they seem to know what I am searching for anyway. Somewhere I read that if you are logged in to your yahoo or google profile, then they can track your search history even on duckduckgo.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
I am sorry, I apparently didn't ask my question clear enough. I realize that google and yahoo track your search history when you use their search engines. I don't use yahoo search engine but they seem to know what I am searching for anyway. Somewhere I read that if you are logged in to your yahoo or google profile, then they can track your search history even on duckduckgo.
What browser are you using?
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Slightly different, but this happened to me personally.

Work PC and home PC.
At work, searching for Product X. Something I had never, ever searched for before. Ever, anywhere.
Using IE and google.com. Specifically NOT signed in to a google account, never ever on that system.
Similarly, was not logged in to an Amazon account at that time.
Google returns multiple links for Product X.
I did not click on any of those links.

Later that day, at home.
Open my Amazon account.
"Would you like to buy Product X?"

Remember, this was a class of product I had never ever searched for, on any platform.

I had previously (months previous) logged in to my Amazon account from the work system, and obviously the home system.

The Amazon result in the google results obviously talked to the Amazon cookie on the work system. Which talked to Amazon.
Later, my Amazon acct knew this.


There are multiple ways of crosslinking search patterns and results.
 
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