A subsidiary of Verizon Communications is pitching advertisers on a service that would scan more than 200 million Yahoo email accounts to provide information on consumer behavior, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The offer also extends to AOL Mail, which Verizon’s Oath owns along with Yahoo, according to the news organization. It may heighten scrutiny of broader data-collection efforts by tech companies, which have fielded criticism for their handling of personal information and are developing enhanced privacy measures in response. Google, for example, said last year it would quit scanning Gmail accounts.
A top Oath executive told the Journal that the practice only pertains to commercial emails from retailers and others, and said individuals are able to opt out if they wish.
“Email is an expensive system,” Vice President Doug Sharp said. “I think it’s reasonable and ethical to expect the value exchange, if you’ve got this mail service and there is advertising going on.”
The service — which one source told the Journal began over a decade ago — groups people into categories based upon their spending habits. Individuals who trade on the U.S. stock market and receive emails from brokerage firms, for example, can be labeled as “investors” and be targeted for related advertisements, Sharp said.
Top technology chiefs are set to testify next month in separate congressional hearings, where they are likely to face scrutiny over such practices in addition to questions about election interference. Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive officer, will appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Sept. 5 and join peers from Facebook and Google at a September hearing with the Senate Intelligence panel.
