US Court Rules Against Yahoo
Seeking Alpha Analyst Since 2013
Yahoo has suffered from a setback as American court has ruled against its interests and accuses for email spying.
Yahoo has suffered from a setback, as an American court has ruled against its interests. Yahoo news reported that a US judge ordered the company, which 'injured' it from a countrywide lawsuit, accusing it for illegitimately using the messages sent to its customers from the accounts of other service's users. Yahoo news today informed that the court believes the company has employed the intercepted details for advertising purposes.
The US District Judge, Lucy Koh, has stated that the people, who have sent or received electronic mails from the users of Yahoo mail since 2nd October, 2011, may jointly sue the company. Legal sources have revealed that in its judgment, the court has referred to the Federal Stored Communications Act. Ms. Koh added that the state's Invasion of Privacy Act could be used for pleading against the 'Mayer-headed' organization.
Yahoo breaking news affirmed that users of non-Yahoo mailing account had blamed the company for copying and analyzing their emails, encompassing attachment, and keywords, with an objective of creating advertisement for a target market of 275,000,000 users. They had filed a suit for injunction and damages.
Market sources stated that in 2014, the high-tech giant earned more than 75% of its revenue through the means of advertising. Experts presented their view that a joint action would permit the affected customers to easily obtain larger damages and other remedies at a lower cost.
Industry sources claimed that more than 100,000,000 users have been affected by the Yahoo's anti-privacy act. The spokeswoman of the organization has refused to comment on the active lawsuit. US District Judge has also rejected the arguments of Yahoo's lawyers. The company told the court that some complainants supported its activity by emailing Yahoo users.
In 2014, a similar lawsuit was filed against Google in the same court. At that time, the same District Judge refused to rule against the American search engine developer, as it was difficult to determine which users had consented to the company's controversial activity.
In her judgment, Ms. Koh wrote that the company might need to change its scanning practices. The legal representatives of the complainants have also refused to respond to the court's verdict. Industry experts believe that the decision would play an important role in damaging the global reputation of the Internet related service provider.
The corporate giant should now develop strategies and take some steps to address the concerns of the plaintiffs, or it could suffer consequences in the highly competitive world.
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