Amarin Corp Plc (AMRN)

[sts66]

Folks, we have a problem here re: offline communications. Anyone with a Yahoo account likely remembers when they forced a change from their nice simple old email format to the new java-based one earlier this year, but the switchover was much more insidious than simply a format change. I just discovered yesterday that Yahoo significantly changed their TOS, buried deep in the fine print, to allow spying on personal email accounts like Gmail does, but it's even worse than just targeting ads:

7 tips to deal with Yahoo’s TOS update that lets them snoop in your emails and chats

Yahoo is forcing its email users to switch to a new version of Yahoo Mail, and although it’s certainly easier on the eyes, the biggest change is less obvious: the new policy lets Yahoo scan your emails and IMs to target you with ads and see if you’re violating any policies or laws. Read on for 7 tips to deal with this change.

As of today (June 3, 2013), Yahoo Mail users will have to switch to the new version, which launched back in December. That means accepting the revised Terms of Service (TOS) and and Privacy Policy, which means agreeing to let “Yahoo!’s automated systems scan and analyze all incoming and outgoing communications content sent and received from your account.”

Yahoo has automated systems that look at the words you type, the files you attach, the people you contact, your location, and more. These systems guess at who you are and what interests you, and then change the ads you see on Yahoo to whatever they think you’ll respond to. Google has been doing this with Gmail for a long time.

There’s another privacy issue, too: Yahoo doesn’t just scan the email of Yahoo Mail users, but also the email of anyone who corresponds with them. That’s right: even if you don’t use Yahoo Mail but you email someone who does, Yahoo can scan your communications. The new TOS puts the burden on Yahoo users to tell the people they’re communicating with about this scanning: “If you consent to this ATOS and communicate with non-Yahoo! users using the Services, you are responsible for notifying those users about this feature.”

It’s not only a computerized system looking through your email; occasionally it’ll be a real person. Why? Because Yahoo is combing through your emails not only to figure out what you’re talking about to target you with ads, but for “abuse protection.” Although “abuse” is vague, it could mean violations of Yahoo’s Terms (like sending spam or links to copyrighted content) or unlawful behavior. If Yahoo’s system is anything like the others that currently exist (like on Facebook), once the system flags something as abusive, it could escalate to a real person.

We all know Yahoo is guilty of manipulating their "headlines" pages, which I (and many others) believe comes after money changes hands from some outsider requesting the deed be done. With their new TOS and spying policy, Yahoo in no longer a safe way to exchange personal information - anyone wishing to torpedo our efforts to coordinate letter writing etc. can read this MB and easily target everyone who has posted their Yahoo or Gmail email addies. Don't believe it can't or won't be done, or perhaps is already ongoing.

I know of a safe and free email providers, Fastmail.fm and suggest folks involved in this collaboration seriously consider getting a free Fastmail account. Below is their privacy rules:

Privacy Policy

At FastMail, we take the privacy of our users very seriously. We want to make our policies on managing your data clear and understandable, so we've tried to write our privacy policy in plain English. If you have any further privacy concerns we haven't addressed, please email [e-mail].

Jurisdiction
FastMail is an Australian company and as such is subject to Australian law. Australia has strong privacy laws in relation to email, specified in the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. The Electronic Frontiers Australia organisation has an excellent summary; this privacy policy tries to make it clear how it applies in practice to FastMail.

Surveillance and law enforcement
We do not participate in, or co-operate with, any kind of blanket surveillance or monitoring. (We also point out that Australia does not have any equivalent to the US National Security Letter, so we cannot be forced to do something without being allowed to disclose it.) We also take technical measures where feasible to prevent surveillance of our users occurring without our co-operation, such as:

* using encrypted SMTP for sending your mail when the receiving server supports it.
* mandating encrypted access for webmail, IMAP and POP.
* using Perfect Forward Secrecy where possible for all encrypted connections.
* encrypting communications between our data centres.

Like any company, we can never guarantee our measures are 100% effective, as we don't know the full capabilities of any attackers. However, these measures do act to increase the difficulty and expense of any surveillance.

As an Australian company, we are required to disclose information about specific individual accounts to properly authorised Australian law enforcement with the appropriate supporting documentation. This means we need to see a warrant signed by an Australian judge before we will hand over any email data. Such requests must always be for specific accounts; we do not participate in or co-operate with "fishing expeditions".

As a guideline, in the last year we disclosed information on fewer than 50 accounts. We do not directly disclose any information about our users to law enforcement from outside Australia, and indeed our understanding of Australian law is that it would be illegal for us to do so.