This is slightly old news, but did it receive coverage in Japan? It concerns remarks by Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer about handling personal data that directly contradict recent claims, centered on a certain company in a certain country, that changes of purpose should be possible through opt-out.
According to The Drum’s report[1], at a panel discussion held on January 22, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer said that some technology companies’ attempts to push the boundaries of data sales were losing the trust of governments and consumers alike and hindering development of the personalized Internet. She was referring to the economic damage caused by a loss of trust in companies seeking to profit from personal data without deliberate individual consent. “I think it is consent through personal control: data will flow when companies are open about what they are trying to do, how the data will be handled, and where it will go, and individuals actively approve that. We make active commercial decisions not to do certain things with data.”
The company’s privacy policy[2] says that it does not sell personal data. Instead, data is aggregated and converted into statistics and supplied to advertisers as audience insights; personal data itself is not sold. The company reportedly believes this approach can be broadly adopted.
Mayer also said that, following the Snowden revelations, Yahoo! changed how it stores and transmits data and overhauled encryption, increasing customer trust in the brand and its services.
“A personalized Internet is a better Internet. To get there, we need transparency and individual control. Data belongs to users, who should be able to inspect it, take it to another company they trust more, and make decisions based on the trade-offs. Many people find it difficult to make those decisions because some companies’ services lack transparency and do not give individuals sufficient opportunities for choice and control.”
Yahoo! further says it is willing to bear the commercial costs needed to give consumers adequate control over data handling and their data.
On the same panel, Michael Fries, CEO of cable television company Liberty Global, said: “We will try to profit from customer data, but our company has principles to uphold. Personalized viewing and use of customer data always require customer consent. This is not something to put in tiny print in the terms of service. It should be written in large letters.”
That is Marissa Mayer for you. She makes an excellent point.
So how is Japan doing by comparison?!
Incidentally, Yahoo! says in its privacy policy[2] that when making a materially significant change, it will notify users at their primary email address. That is notification, not mere publication. Since it participates in the EU-US Safe Harbor[3] [4], naturally it follows rules equivalent to those of the EU.
(Source) The Drum [1]
[1] SEB JOSEPH: “Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer: ‘Some internet vendors are not being transparent enough with data’”, The Drum, 2015-01-23, http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/01/23/yahoo-s-marissa-mayer-some-internet-vendors-are-not-being-transparent-enough-data
[2] https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/
[3] http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/
[4] https://info.yahoo.com/privacy/us/yahoo/safeharbor/
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