In March Yahoo changed its marketing policy. With no warning, it suddenly granted itself the right to send advertising spam, postal mail, and telemarketing phone calls to tens of millions of its users who had previously opted out.
There was a huge outcry by privacy advocates and lots of press coverage. Yahoo advised everyone of the page that had to be visited to opt back out of the advertising barrage.
And the result, as reported by the New York TImes in this article? A tiny fraction of one percent of registered Yahoo users changed their settings and opted back out. The rest did nothing. Except presumably to complain bitterly about spam and dinnertime phone calls.
There are good arguments to be made that we deserve what we get, folks . . .
