Questions and answers about the age verification process
UPDATE 7/28/09: Based largely off of the community’s response to this feature, we will be releasing a “patch” for this issue. This patch, which will be available on or around August 18th, 2009, will hide your age in your profile during the 35-day verification period.
Prior to August 17th, if you wish to have your age hidden, you must also hide your full profile (see below for instructions).
After August 17th, accounts that are in the midst of the 35-day waiting period, or, have just started it, will automatically have their ages hidden. Once your account has passed the 35-day verification period, you will have the option of hiding or showing your age. Thank you for your patience.
Following the announcement of the new age verification process, several of you had a variety of questions surrounding this new feature. Below, please find a list of the most commonly asked questions on this new topic:
Q: How do I know if I’ve started the 35-day waiting period?
A: The best and easiest way to tell is to click on your profile, and then click on the “Edit Profile” link. While on this page, if you do not have the option of editing your age, you have triggered the 35-day period and should be able to edit your age information within the next 35-days.
Q: How will I know when my 35-days have passed?
A: Currently, the only way to tell whether your 35-days have passed is to log into your profile and attempt to edit your age. We’re aware that this is frustrating to some users and are working on ways to alleviate this frustration.
Q: Right now my age shows on my profile-how do I hide this while I’m waiting for my 35-days to pass?
A: Currently, the only way to do this is to completely hide your profile while you’re waiting for your 35-days to pass. To do this: click on the “Settings” link located at the top right of your profile. Under the “Permissions” tab, you will see a “Hide My Profile” link located right above the “Save” button. Click on this link, and a pop-up confirmation message will appear. Select “Hide My Profile”, and your profile will remain hidden until you decide to unhide it. (Note: Your display name will still be visible to others even if you hide your profile).
Q: My age shows as one thing on my new profile, but that’s not what I had entered. What’s the deal?
A: In the past, you were able to share your age with Yahoo! in several places, including: your profile, the old profile, and your Account Management page. For some users, they showed one age on their profile, and another within their Account Management page. This change consolidated this information. Once your 35-days are up, you’ll be able to edit your age back to whatever you’d like, and it should remain this way across the network.
Q: Once my 35-days has passed, can I hide my age?
A: Yes! You’ll be given the option of hiding your age from your profile. However, it’s important to note that your age will still be visible to YOU but not your connections.
Q: I am under 18 or my child is under 18-I do NOT want my/their age showing. How can I prevent this from happening?
A: Users who are under the age of 18 will not have their age show while waiting for the 35-day period to pass. However, their age does, and will, show to their connections. This can be removed once the user has passed their 35-day waiting period.
Q: Will everyone’s age be editable in 35 days from the time of this announcement, or does everyone’s day vary?
A: UPDATE: The 35-day period is variable-this means that this process begins whenever you change your security questions. To jump start this process, please go to the login screen for Yahoo! and click “I can’t access my account” — if you have not already selected a new security question, you will be prompted to do so when you log in. Otherwise, you’ll be randomly prompted to change your security questions when you log in. For more information, please read this post from Yodel, our corporate blog: http://ycorpblog.com/2009/04/14/a-24-hour-locksmith-for-your-yahoo-account/
Q: Why are you making this change? It seems like it opens us up for more fraud than before. What gives?
A: By making this change, your data is actually more secure. Previously, you could have used your birthday as one of your security questions. This means that if someone knew your email address and your birthday, they could potentially log into your account without your permission. Now, you cannot use your birthday to verify your account, which ensures that your account and your data is more secure.
Q: If it’s so secure, why are you showing my birthday now?
A: Currently, we’re only showing your age (which you can hide by hiding your profile)-not your actual birthday. This setting is triggered AFTER you have changed your account verification question, ensuring that your identity is not up for grabs whilst you wait for your 35-day period to pass.
Q: Why could we hide our age before, and can’t hide it now?
A: Previously, users hid their age by selecting a “blank” space from the dropdown menu. This is not the intended behavior of profiles. Once you’re able to edit your profile you’ll have the option of hiding your age by selecting a “check box.” You will still be asked to enter your age, but this will not be publicly displayed.
While I know that this change may come as a surprise to many of you, it’s important to note that should you wish to hide your birthday while you’re waiting for your 35-day period to pass, you’re welcome to hide your profile completely. To do this, please follow the instructions above, or, follow this help link: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/profiles/permissions/02.html
Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager
- Subscribe via RSS
- 127 Comments
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Hm. It really seems like there’s a lot of hassle involved with having a Yahoo account these days. The feel I get from Yahoo is “busybody”.
Maybe there could be “simple” and “advanced” versions? 15 years with a yahoo account, never been hacked or hassled. Now its age-verification this, questions that, link everything, share everything, privacy invasion a-go-go. Maybe I’m getting old, but Yahoo is more like work…too much work to be here these days. I’ve been driven pretty far away so far…not sure how much farther I can go.
We’ll see if it impacts me much. Hope it doesn’t. I don’t use yahoo much anymore, but when I do, it would be nice not have things get in the way. Again. More.
July 26th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Im very dissapointed in Yahoo displaying my age,It was never viewed before for the public,This is a down right invasion of my privacy,It should be my business what I want viewed or not, and yahoo has invaded my privacy,If I wanted anyone to know my age I would have displayed,I will now be compeled to cancel my yahoo and account, other providers at least respect your privacy,we should have been givien a notice of changes before you went ahead and played God.Im not a yahoo customer anymore unless changes are made back to the way I had my account set up.
August 19th, 2009 at 4:21 am
do not be dissapointed that is nature. do not quite any more. if you quite i will be very unhappy.
August 27th, 2009 at 6:12 am
…anyway you can edit your profile to hide your age
August 9th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Yes, having a Yahoo Account is a big Hassle these days!! I am upset that my age is showing while I am looking for work. I know this is not legal. I am also upset that my profile shows up with the weather report everytime I log in. What is up with this. All of sudden this is happening and the customer care people don’t know what to do. Very Frustrating!!!
August 10th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Silvia,
1- you will have the option of hiding your age once you pass the 35 day period, or, on/after August 18th– whichever comes sooner.
2- I’m not sure as to what you mean by “weather report”– just pulled up your profile (using the address you provided here) and didn’t see a weather report module. Are you talking about the homepage or my.yahoo.com? If so, these should be configurable modules that you can remove.
-Melissa
August 13th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
RS, I couldn’t agree with you more. Everything in your post is exactly the way I feel. Thanks for sharing.
September 15th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
hey whats up how are you today???
September 15th, 2009 at 8:04 pm
You speak the truth man, they really make it a hassle these days!
September 17th, 2009 at 9:00 am
I don’t want my age displayed, it seems so complicated to change it.
September 24th, 2009 at 11:09 am
lucky you you have acces i cant login since they started the age verification i always fall back on my login side so i cant do nothing anymore, not even ask for help bc you must log in firts and not only my accountalso from my girlfriend
kisses
jenny
July 23rd, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Melissa:
This is a totally unacceptable solution and explanation for this breach of security. Trying to assuage your end users by explaining that the change will make thier profiles more secure is preposterous. The safest thing for Yahoo to have done would have been to not show anyones age at all, even if they wanted their age viewable. Hopefully this will be a lesson for you and management. Once you’ve broken your trust with your cusomters it is extremely difficult to win it back. Yahoo has violated our privacy and has failed to act responsibly and correct the situation. I for one will pass on the circumstances of this fiasco throughout the web and let people know of this companies reckless disregard of our privacy. Thank goodness there wasn’t financial information in any of these profiles. I’ve gone ahead and cancelled my account with Yahoo and will refrain from ever using any of Yahoo’s services in the future.
July 24th, 2009 at 3:06 am
Hope you can still read this. I am totally agreed with you. I just found out they show my age a few hours ago. There must be tons of people do not know their age is exposed. This is ridiculous and unacceptable. How can it happen in the US?
July 30th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
i love how it says NAME (required)
E-mail (required- never shown publicly)<-=-==– HAHAHAAHa…hmmmm are you SURE???
UGhhhhhhhh I am SO IRRITATED BY ALL OF THIS! actually FURIOUS. And I feel EXPOSED…
July 24th, 2009 at 12:51 am
I can’t seem to get the prompt to enter new security questions, except when it is inconvenient for me. I’ve repeatedly tried signing into
https://edit.yahoo.com/commchannel/manage
but that simply brings up the page for email addresses and mobile numbers.
Only when I’m away from home and unwilling to deal with it have I been prompted. The latest time I was told I couldn’t log in until I entered them. So I didn’t, I closed the browser instead. Now that I’m home I can log in without the prompt. Grrr…
July 24th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Hi Shal,
Thanks for pointing this out– I’ve updated the post– here’s the correct ‘how-to’
UPDATE: The 35-day period is variable-this means that this process begins whenever you change your security questions. To jump start this process, please go to the login screen for Yahoo! and click “I can’t access my account” — if you have not already selected a new security question, you will be prompted to do so when you log in. Otherwise, you’ll be randomly prompted to change your security questions when you log in. For more information, please read this post from Yodel, our corporate blog: http://ycorpblog.com/2009/04/14/a-24-hour-locksmith-for-your-yahoo-account/
-Melissa
July 24th, 2009 at 6:18 am
“While I know that this change may come as a surprise to many of you, it’s important to note that should you wish to hide your birthday while you’re waiting for your 35-day period to pass, you’re welcome to hide your profile completely.”
Actually you’re wrong Melissa. If you posted ANYTHING on Yahoo groups then your age and gender is now shown along with your profile name.
You are doing a tremendous disservice by preventing me from hiding my age on Yahoo groups. I feel completed violated and I am extremely angry with Yahoo at this time!
July 24th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Matt,
Groups is something else entirely– there’s a known and open issue with the Groups team that users are unable to edit their age and the display information that appears beneath their names on a Group member list. Please see this help link from the Groups team for more information: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/groups/original/issues/oldprofile.html
-Melissa
July 24th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
Melissa,
This is exactly the same issue that I was referring to on the Yahoo Finance message boards, ie, my profile is hidden and can not be seen when someone clicks on my name, however it doesn’t really matter because my age and allll of my profile information is displayed on each and every post. sigh.
What is Yahoo going to do to get rid of the profile information that is being displayed on the Finance message boards??
It is obviously something I can not delete myself, and I have had my alias for over 10 yrs. and there are numerous posts that show my age and I can not prevent it. ugh.
Thanks.
July 24th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Hi Diva,
Message boards have the same issue as groups– there are a few products that are stuck in this “limbo” state for a little while (there should hopefully be some sort of movement on all of this towards the middle to end of August). Currently, groups, message boards, games, and chat all contain “static” data like this– meaning you’re not able to hide it or edit it as it’s part of the legacy system that was replaced.
Anything that was previously set to visible on any of these products is essentially frozen until this fix comes out.
Again, I wholly acknowledge that this is a less than desirable situation and hope to have some sort of a solution for you in the coming month.
Thanks for your patience.
-Melissa
July 24th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Thanks for the answer.
Yes, I am far from thrilled about having personal information suddenly displayed on pubic msg. boards and knowing there is absolutely nothing I can do about it.
So, please pass it on that there are many, many of us that are very unhappy about this and I hope it does get corrected ASAP.
Regardless, after several emails to Customer Care, you are the first that was able to finally provide me with the real answer about this issue, so thank you very much.
July 25th, 2009 at 5:30 am
@Diva
Welcome to world of Yahoo! Customer Support. I know Melissa has previously stated they work hard and will disagree with me, but I have to agree with you, they simply cannot answer questions, Melissa is like a one woman support team at the minute. And I’m not talking the last 10 months, im talking the last 10 years!
They latch on to specific words and choose a canned response, if you reply you get the same response or nothing. If they cannot find a word, they simply reply with a canned response saying they don’t have enough information. Then to rub it in, you get a “satisfaction” survey to complete.
I have three examples on my website of really poor support, One was a bug report about a chat disconnect when posting smileys, I got a response about how to ignore people because their are no moderators. A second was about not being able to post emotions, I got a response about how to post smileys. Another was about vulnerabilies in privacy with regards to IDs, and I got a response saying there wasn’t enough information.
In terms of Groups, Finance, Chat etc. it’s a real shame because although that help page is dated 24 July, this problem has been known since day 1 when the new profiles went live. First there was an official workaround til about March/April, then there was an unofficial one because this was removed, and finally there was nothing (since 360 shut down).
It wouldn’t have hurt Yahoo! to keep one of the old servers open for us to keep them up to date. It’s been about 8 months where it’s wrong, so it should really have been integrated already anyway – unless there is an agenda to remove such services – after all don’t fix something you’re getting rid of.
I think Melissa has spent more time recently answering questions about age, that it would have been more economically feasible to just have an option from the beginning, 35 days or not, to hide age (not change, but hide, so its Today – DOB or nothing).
July 24th, 2009 at 7:43 am
I just checked, and my age is not editable anywhere in my profile. By that I mean there’s no place I could find that I would be able to access it anyway.
What am I overlooking?
July 24th, 2009 at 9:10 am
When the age field is available, you will be able to access it by going to “Edit profile” or, http://profiles.yahoo.com/edit/basicinfo and will see a menu beneath the “Gender” option and above the captcha (those squiggly letters you have to enter to verify your changes).
-Melissa
July 27th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
v . good melassa
July 24th, 2009 at 9:02 am
Thank you for helping to make the information about this matter more understandable.
However, I still have a question that was not addressed.
You said ‘The 35-day period is variable-this means that this process begins whenever you change your security questions’…’please visit: https://edit.yahoo.com/commchannel/manage‘
I visited that page and was not asked to select a new security question. Does this mean that I am in the process of the 35 day waiting period??
Also, if I have already passed the 35 day period, will my birthdate information still be unavailable until Yahoo finishes the changes that they are implementing, and will that change be finished by Aug. 15th???
At the present time my account settings show that my birthdate information is on file.
I think it is so confusing because they are two separate time-line issues.
One is Yahoo removing access while working on a new birthday format, etc.
The second is the time-line for security questions and answers.
So to clarify my question…is it possible for someone to have passed the 35 day waiting period and still not have access to their birthdate information to make changes on Profiles??
July 24th, 2009 at 9:08 am
Hi Florence,
Yes– this means you have already completed the question portion of your migration and just need to wait for your 35 day period to pass.
Once you pass the 35 day period, you’ll have the option of hiding only your age instead of your whole profile (as you have done now).
To answer your final question– no. Once you pass the 35 day period, you will have access to your birth day and will also have the ability to hide it.
Hope this helps clear things up.
-Melissa
August 14th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Well Melissa it seems you were wrong!!
Today on August 14, 2009 I was requested to choose two questions!!
What the heck!! And you said I had already completed the portion of my migration on the July 24th comment. Now I get the privilege of waiting to see when Yahoo decides to implement the patch and IF the patch works and then wait 35 days to see IF my personal information can be changed to non-public view.
It seems you are spending a LOT of time spinning a lot of yarn from the wool that you are trying to pull over everyone. You see…I believe what you said….and that is not a mistake I will make again.
July 24th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Melissa, I’ve asked twice on the original thread, but you’ve ignored me.
I have the opposite problem to everybody else – I want to show my age in my profile, but it doesn’t show when I view it without logging in. Other people also don’t see it.
I want to join a group that insists on having the age visible in the profile, but I can’t find any way to enable it. I’ve already set the permission to view “About Me” to “Anyone”, if that matters.
Is the age hidden from other people while we’re in the 35 day period? This is still a really confusing way to go about this.
July 24th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Hi Stephen,
My apologies, and thank you for your persistence. With so many comments it is hard to reply to them all, and it’s inevitable that some slip through the cracks.
When I pulled up your account using the email address you’ve provided here, it shows that you haven’t filled out any of your profile details. However, your birthday is registered in the system and it shows that you are in the “waiting phase” for the age hiding option.
If you could try filling out your profile and then let me know if you still have problems, we can work from there. Feel free to email me directly at yahooprofiles [at] yahoo-inc [dot] com
-Melissa
July 24th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Melissa, I’m not sure what more you want me to fill in – it already has my gender, location and name.
July 24th, 2009 at 11:38 am
This information is automatically populated for you based on your old account information. I was hoping you’d try adding something in the “about me” section or uploading an image to ensure that you’ve completely gone through the registration flow.
-Melissa
July 24th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Ok, I’ve added a few fields and the age still doesn’t appear (it’s worth pointing out that my profile used to be fully filled out, I removed the contents a little while ago)
July 24th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Thanks, Stephen.
I’ll escalate this.
-Melissa
July 24th, 2009 at 10:26 am
It’s annoying enough that Yahoo took the liberty of posting users’ age online without users’ consent, it sure made it a lot worst in my case when Yahoo decided to make up my age… what Yahoo posted on my profile is not my real age!!! while waiting for Yahoo to make the edit feature available, I followed your instructions to “hide my profile” for the moment, but it doesn’t work… my fake age is currently still posted on my profile…
July 24th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
I did hide my profile but my age is still visible on Yahoo Messageboard postings? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
July 26th, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Everyones ages are displayed, which was a surprise to me….damn yahoo, im changing services, i cant believe they stabbed us in the back..
August 11th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I didn’t give yahoo permission to post anything….I don’t like it one bit.
July 24th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I used to love coming to yahoo, I am totally disgusted with yahoo now. You have turned into big brother. I feel like I am dealing with the IRS. You might as well close your doors now… there is no way you will survive with this new profile page. All this following our every move…showing every conversation, showing our email connections, showing our age, it’s just to much. I am more than capable of telling people things they need to know or things i want them to know about me. I don’t need yahoo making those decisions for me. What were you thinking when you created this new page. That we were all morons that would just say okay to our personal information being out there for anyone.to see. I am so furious I can hardly express my feelings.
July 24th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I did hide my profile but my age is still visible on Yahoo Messageboard postings? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE? I even changed Male to Female
but on the messageboards it still show the old info; WITH my age!!
UNBELIEVABLE!
(Y-email address submitted in message)
July 27th, 2009 at 10:09 am
Messageboards are using the old profile data that you cannot maintain anymore, it’s stuck.
It’s been like this for well over 8 months, but Melissa has said these services should start changing over during August.
September 3rd, 2009 at 12:27 pm
it will stay that way until your 35 days is up. H
July 24th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
YAHOO HELP says that birth date change option is NOT available even after waiting 35 days or MORE. See emails below:
From: Yahoo! Profiles
Subject: Re: About Me Help
To: cat****************
Date: Friday, July 24, 2009, 11:00 AM
Hello Cat,
Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Profiles.
I understand you are contacting us because you are unable to edit the age on your Profile. I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused for you.
Please be assured that we are aware of this problem and are working to fix it. Our new profile on Yahoo! product is currently in BETA mode and we’re fixing some of the quirks associated with our launch.
We have identified the cause of your error and we’re working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, and we appreciate your patience while we correct this bug.
For updates on this issue, please visit our Product Blog at: http://www.yprofileblog.com/
Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Profiles.
Regards,
Max
————————
From: cat *********
Subject: Re: About Me Help
To: profiles-help@cc.yahoo-inc.com
Date: Thursday July 23, 2009 – 18:36:33
Dear Yahoo Help,
Yahoo records indicate that updated security questions were
answered on 05/25/09. Much more than 35 days has passed but there is still no edit option available for the birth date. Please correct this.
Thank you.
cat
July 24th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
My apologies– you shouldn’t have received this type of a response from Customer Care. Instead, you should have been sent something similar to this blog entry– something that outlines the issue and the next step.
I’m working with CC to refine this as we speak/chat/read.
-Melissa
July 26th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
NO THANK U 4 HELPIN ME MAKE ME A PROFILE 4 MYYAHOO.COM
July 25th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
WHEN are we going to get something new? Our profiles are so incredibly boring. Boring to be at and boring to visit. There’s nothing to do on them, it’s like a virtual business card at best. Yawn.
July 25th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
I agree with Gypsy. This place is so boring and now most of my contacts have gone to Myspace and Facebook.. One of my friends had posted a blog and it went totally unnoticed for 4 days.. There really isn’t much to keep us on here anymore.. sigh
July 26th, 2009 at 9:57 am
I THINK THEY WAS GREAT BUT I RY TO HIDE MY AGE BUT I CANT HIDE MY PROFILE
July 27th, 2009 at 9:38 am
Melissa,
I tried to terminate a yahoo account that I thought was at risk of an attacker. After going through the deletion phase, I tested the deltetion by attempting to log in as an attacher would with a false password. I am immediately directed to enter squigly letters, at which point I am asked if I wish to re-activate the account! So it seems anyone can reactivate a closed account. Even after I had to enter a password to terminate it.
That said, I decided to update my security questions, because the initial ones were easily answered. The new answers are much more secure. Now when I try to test hack my account by going into the ‘forgot id/password’ screen, yahoo gives me the ability select “this is not my question” and then it takes me to the previous question! Does the ability to go to the previous questions expire over time?
The fact that ANYONE can re-activate and account, and then go the previous security questions really makes me concerned.
July 28th, 2009 at 7:01 am
YOU SAY 35 DAYS AND ” WHY CANT I EDIT MY PROFILE” SAYS 30 DAYS….SO WHAT IS IT???..AND WHY DOES IT TAKE THIS LONG??? IS THIS UNIVERSAL PROFILE BETA???? ALSO ITS KINDA BORING WITH NO BACKROUNDS, ETC
July 28th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
this is GARBAGE just get rid of the age factor all together!!! I’ve gone every LINK possible to EDIT Birthday etc & we’re NOT ALLOWED TO?? what is this sh*** ?? Either let me change my birthday or i’ll just get rid of YAHOO! not worth it!
July 30th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
yeah everything suppose to be private but its not anymore so what the hell is that!
July 28th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
[...] to August 17th, if you wish to have your age hidden, you must also hide your full profile (see this post for [...]
July 28th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
what happened to the comments section after most articles ???????
July 29th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I had my Yahoo! account hacked and apparently, the birthdate I provided does not match what is on file.
When updating the birthdate via profiles, does it change the birthdate on account for verification?
It saddens me that after 12 years of having the account, I am now permanently locked out.
July 30th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
After reading all the comments, and I share everybody’s feelings and frustrations and sh.. words, I still don’t understand. Do I have to do something with my secret questions (which I didn’t even know that I had), or can I just sit and wait till Augst 18? And why all of a sudden do we all have this headache, because someone irresponsible at Yahoo has revealed our age to public? Can we file a class action against Yahoo? Look! There are so many of us – angry men and women. What do you think, people?
July 31st, 2009 at 2:20 am
NEW PROBLEM with birth date edit/hide option.
Hi Melissa,
Yahoo finally provided an option to edit/hide the birth date. Unfortunately the “hide my age” box does not function. Age is not hidden whether the box is checked or un-checked.
Some birth dates do not function. Birth dates from September through December for the year 1991 are not accepted. There is no option for birth dates from 1992 to present.
Customer Care replies seem to be scripted and don’t address the issues that were raised. It is pointless and frustrating to write to Customer Care. Is there an alternative? Is Yahoo Customer Care composed of real people or merely bots?
Thanks for your help Melissa. As someone said, you are a one person customer service team. At times it may sound like people are angry with you, but the anger is not with you. People are tired of the circuitous and frivolous replies from Customer Care.
Thanks,
cat
July 31st, 2009 at 6:16 pm
How terrible that you show ages without our permission. I am shopping for a site that respects me and my privacy. I never imagined that you’d do this to me – you have violated my rights. Remove the ages Immediately.
August 2nd, 2009 at 1:57 pm
THE ABOVE DOES NOT ADDRESS THE ISSUE. I HAVE MY PROFILE HIDDEN AND MY AGE IS STILL VISIBLE ON YAHOO MESSAGE BOARDS, OR ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS WILL BE THE CASE UNTIL AUG 18TH?
August 2nd, 2009 at 8:02 pm
I was horrified to find my age shown for public view. I have been just spent over and hour trying to get it turned off. I stumbled on this link. HOW IN THE HELL COULD YOU ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. IF YAHOO HAS NOT FIRED OR SUSPENDED THE MANAGER(S) INVOLVED IN THIS PROJECT THEN YOUR APPOLOGIES MEAN NOTHING. I could potentially be facing age descrimination in my job hunt. I am a stockholder in this company but that will be past tense as of this week. I have tried to keep faith in Yahoo but Yahoo just keeps pulling one boner after another. I am switching to Google.com and Facebook.com. I
August 4th, 2009 at 1:01 am
thanks news profile
August 4th, 2009 at 1:04 am
im happy with news profile
August 4th, 2009 at 6:50 am
tried to post this on ‘feedback’ would post…so pasting it here. been with yahoo for over ten years…been a good service. but…when i registered i never gave any personal information. no age…no birthdate…not even my name…so…where did you get this stuff from…your cookies are maybe getting a little too hot to allow on my system…a little too invasive…so..you are now blocked. and if this in anyway messes with the yahoo services that i use…then i am done with yahoo. completely.
what i tried to post to ‘feeback’ – tthis sucks. big time. if we hide our profile so that you cannot share personal information that we have not given you permission to share….then no one can even view our blogs. yah…i know…you are working on it…well…seems to me that you should not have shut down 360 until you had the bugs worked out of your beta version here….and i have been to melissa’s blog and read all the other complaints…it is not her fault…she has no power to change the situation and i think that she has been dumed on enough….you need to get your act together …and fast…or your deal with msoft will be for naught as you will have no people left who use your totally flawed services…even my email is getting f******* up….come on yahoo…i have been loyal thru all these years…but not much longer…and i am not alone in that sentiment as you are aware.
lotsa luck with your new msoft adventure…maybe a little more money in your pocket will allow you to hire some qualified programmers and get this mess cleaned up.
and i repeat…you should not have launched this profile crap in the beta version and made it the only vehicle with which we can keep in touch with friends and family as we did on 360 ….you should have learned from the Mash fiasco. get the bugs out or at least the major ons…make sure that the beta is fully functioning…before shutting down a [minimally] functioning platform…ie-360!!!!!
August 4th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
MELISSA ARE YOU GONNA ANSWER THIS OR NOT?
I HAVE MY PROFILE HIDDEN AND MY AGE IS STILL VISIBLE ON YAHOO MESSAGE BOARDS, OR ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS WILL BE THE CASE UNTIL AUG 18TH?
August 4th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
This is an issue with Message Boards, not profiles. There is not an estimated resolution date for this issue (Groups and Chat also have this issue) but there will likely be changes in the coming month.
-Melissa
August 5th, 2009 at 9:59 am
There will “likely be changes in the coming month”, WOW!!
So I can’t hide my age until these changes will likely come out in the coming months? This freakin unbelievable!
August 5th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Well, been nearly a month since I noticed my (incorrect) age was on show to the world and I still can’t change it. Who’d have thought a company the size of Yahoo could take so long to fix something as simple and important as this? It can’t be that hard just to put a box on the page where I can change my age.
I can’t believe Yahoo could have done this to its users deliberately which sadly leaves the alternative – incompetence. Hopefully you’ll get this sorted out before any of the popular tech news sites pick up on it. You never sought my consent before publishing my age as is legally required with all data provided in confidence, and with all the fuss about online privacy and identity theft, that’s pretty big news these days.
On a side note, I also noticed with these new profiles that my user information such as age, location doesn’t show up in the chatrooms when someone moves the mouse over my name in the user list. I guess that’s another thing that worked perfectly with the old profiles that will probably never get fixed.
August 5th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Hopefully this big rant doesn’t show up twice. I posted it twice because the first one didn’t show up even after refreshing the page several times. I guess the profiles aren’t the only part of Yahoo full of bugs these days!
August 6th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Caroline,
As both of the posts state, the age field is in a “frozen state” for 35 days after you have re-verified your account. After you confirm your account and wait 35 days (or the August 18th release is pushed out) you’ll be able to edit your age, hide your age, etc.
Regarding the delay: yes, these changes take time. This isn’t due to a lack of interest, desire, etc. Some of it is the result of being a “company the size of Yahoo”– with literally hundreds of millions of users, things must be tested in multiple environments, for each country/region, etc, and, changes must take place within other properties as well. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as “just putting a box on the page.”
As for not asking for your consent– that’s actually not true. Under the TOS that you agreed to when you created a Y! account, we have the right to change our products at will. Additionally, your age has always been a public field. We have never, and will never, reveal your actual birthday. As I’ve stated before, these changes were done to protect user privacy and ensure that your birthday cannot be used to exploit your account.
Re: Chatrooms– I’ve also addressed this issue in the past but am happy to do so again– the chat rooms, message boards, and portions of groups rely on old profile data. We’re currently working on resolving these issues, but for some products, this was built into old code in the system and must be handled with care.
-Melissa
August 6th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
I’m upset about my age, real name and gender has been exposed with out my consent if this isn’t fixed by the end of August I’m closing my account.
August 7th, 2009 at 2:55 am
What strikes me here is that Meliisa is actualy defending the actions of Yahoo by publishing the age of their users as legitimate and referring to the TOS when these accounts were created. WOW!
IMO this must be one of THE biggest blunders Yahoo has made in their existence. BTW (My age is still visible & my profile is hidden).
Yes, I know they are working on it, could take some time.
August 9th, 2009 at 4:50 am
i am very upset about my age,has been exposed to all….
August 9th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I’m going back to snail mail. I’ve eliminated all of my contacts so I can’t inadvertently send them my shoe size.
August 10th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Melissa
What about yahoo groups that require an age to be shown. But due to the changes, the age won’t show even through the profile is not hidden. My other half was removed from a yahoo group for this reason and now can’t get back in because his age won’t show.
Also, in adult yahoo groups, is having an age visible a requirement? For many years, we have been told that if all members don’t have their age showing then yahoo can delete the group at will. Is this true?
August 10th, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Hi Cataryna,
That’s actually an old “groups myth” created by Moderators. We’ve always screened users before they’re even able to find an adult group: if you’re under 18, you can’t find anything marked as adult/mature, and, are ineligible to join. Over 18? These groups show up and you’re eligible to join.
You’ve never needed to actually have your age showing in your profile to join a group– this is something created by moderators to “protect” themselves/their groups. We will not delete a group if someone has their age hidden– this is not in the Community Guidelines or in Yahoo’s Terms of Service.
You’re welcome to tell the group moderator this, or, have them contact me directly if they need more information/want to clarify.
yahoogroups [at] yahoo-inc [dot] com
or
yahooprofiles [at] yahoo-inc [dot] com
-Melissa
August 10th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Thank you Melissa
August 10th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
You’re telling people to hide profiles to fix the problem. Are you also disappointed that you’re not convincing more people to use profiles? Then a similar problem is in 2 other areas, plus you can’t convince group moderators of the rules, either. Do you see why more and more people are upset with Yahoo?
August 10th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
Alex,
These are two separate issues/subjects. Group moderators (I’m assuming you’re referring to Cataryna’s comment above) have long believed that they had to manually verify a group member’s age so as to prevent their group from being shut down. This fostered a very vigilant group of adult moderators who were concerned with doing “the right thing”– if you ask me, this isn’t a bad thing to have. I’d rather have loads of group moderators concerned with protecting minors from explicit content than have the same amount of moderators looking to “sneak something past” Y!, parents, or users. If you visit the groups about groups (ListHelp, EmailListManagers, Yahoogroupsaboutgroups) you’ll see that there are moderators who ask this same question, and many other moderators who jump to correct the myth. It’s not something that’s detrimental to the user base or, to the product, and, doesn’t limit a member or moderator’s activity.
As for telling people to hide their profile to fix the problem– this is only a temporary solution until the fix is pushed out next week. Once the fix has been released this will no longer be an issue.
-Melissa
August 10th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
In response to the question about the Age being shown, and the response that it was an “old “groups myth” created by Moderators”, is in fact a LIE. This “Myth” was NOT created by Moderators. The Final Word on it came down directly from Yahoo themselves.
I’ve been on Yahoo since DAY 1, and I’ve run (both as Owner and Moderator), dozens of Yahoo groups (both All Ages and Adult) and have been a Beta Tester for various areas of Yahoo for too many years to even bother to count or list here.
The Age Verification was originally REQUIRED for Adult Groups, as well as the fact that Yahoo sent out quite a few emails a few years ago, and then again recently, that Members of Adult Groups will be Required to have their Age, Gender, and Location, shown to be able to stay as Members of an Adult Group. This was stated by both the Dev Staff, as well as the Beta Staff originally, and not by Moderators, contrary to popular belief.
In the event that the Yahoo Staff claims that this is not true, us “Old-Timers” remember full well when it was part of the TOS, and some of us even had our Groups removed because some of our Members’ outright refused to list the info that Yahoo was requiring. The “Myth” story was possibly started by the Yahoo staff, all because of the actions taken by Yahoo a few years, when numerous Adult Groups suddenly went POOF overnight, and no thorough explanation was ever given as to why, other than they violated the TOS in regards to Member Requirements.
In the end, most Owners and Moderators here on Yahoo Groups finally just decided to HAVE to require this information, just to cover their own rears and not have their groups go POOF with NO warning from Yahoo. I, for one, have done just this, as have a lot of Adult Group Owners that I know personally.
I still currently Own and Moderate quite a few Yahoo Groups, and with the Adult Groups that I run, I STILL require this information whether people like it or not.
What it finally boils down to is this: If you don’t want to have your Age, Gender, or Location shown on your Profile, then just DON’T join a Yahoo Adult group. It’s just as simple as that. Even if Yahoo states that this info is suddenly NOT required, Adult Group Owners and Moderators still have the right to require this information, whether you like it or not.
It’s NOT the fault of these Group Owners and Moderators, that some people wish to LIE to others about their Age, Gender and Location, etc.
If you’re that insecure about your Age, then you seriously have bigger “Personal” issues to deal with, than just an Age problem on Yahoo…
August 11th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
I am completely disgusted with this profile. I tryed to log in to my email and kept getting some new screen, after changing my password. I kept logging in and out trying to avoid it but it kept popping up so i clicked into it and discovered I have a profile established and it states it’s internet accessible. This is a complete violation of privacy. You displayed my name, city, state, email address and age. That information is private and not to be disclosed by you or anyone else without my consent. Not everyone does social networking,. I have had this email address for too long to have to edit it with everyone I do business with. Your company made a poor descision when they made this something people automatically have versus having the option of using it or not. Also, I still haven’t read enough to figure out exactly what this 35 day period is…Is it a finalization period of like acceptance that you do want this or what is it? I also, never saw an option for changing or doing anything to your age, it’s just right there for everyone to view. That’s outrageously unacceptable. You made it hard to figure out this was set up by your company. I had to be advised that, that is probaly how I was set up with this profile because I have never participated in social networking. There should be an option to delete this entire profile instead of hiding it. There are other and better ways to make things more secure for your users rather than forcing these kinds of actions on people.
August 14th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Shows my age is a form of age discriminatio. You should be sued!
I’m hoping that some Lawyer will take it on as a class action suite.
GET MY AGE OFF OF HERE!!!!
August 14th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Furious to find out I have a public profile. I never asked for this.
August 16th, 2009 at 1:11 am
I just found out today my age was being revealed by my Yahoo profile!!! Some investigation lead me to this thread, plus I also found out my full name was being revealed in Yahoo groups I participate in.
I am very disappointed in Yahoo. They have failed to protect information which I did not intend to reveal in public. Unfortuantely, it is probably too late. Why?
The data mining companies probably already know about this and have beefed up their databases with member information exposed by Yahoo. I’m referring to websites that sell “publicly available” personal information such as http://www.lookupanyone.com, “www.123people.com”, and “www.ussearch.com”.
The problem with these websites is some do not allow you to expunge your entry in their database, and those that do will charge a fee and require you to register with personal information – catch 22! So in a sense, irreparable harm has been done.
I wonder what the legal ramifications are? Is there the possibility of class action litigation? I don’t recall what the terms of use at the time I signed up were (over a decade ago) but certainly my intent was never to allow this info out!
August 18th, 2009 at 6:46 am
I agree with Lance 100% because as u know we should really push for the edit option and follow up to make sure that is functioning poperly. Or request that 30 day rule should not be enforced because of sensitive info might have been over looked great point LET’S GET IT OUT THERE
August 17th, 2009 at 3:16 am
Melissa states ‘we do not show your birthday, just your age’ . While this is true, some in the eagle eyed messageboard community will note that on your birthday your age will change.
Yahoo have at various times on their messageboards shown my email – it still happens occasionally – which had my real name on it, my Post code (Zip) and now my age…ALL without consent. This represents at the least a serious breach of trust, at worst a gift to identity fraudsters.
My advice is do not input ANY accurate data to Yahoo, they really cannot be trusted with it at all.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
I have already done my secret questions months ago, but still not able to hide my age.
Can you tell me when I will be able to do it?
August 18th, 2009 at 6:34 am
I think age is very important because of the drifferent preditors on line, but I also know that it can be harmful in certain situtations Conclusion we must decide which catagories that age is pertinent. And always protect ones that are not of aware of the pitfalls on the web there are many sharks in these waters
August 18th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Ok soooooo where is this patch??? re: “So where is this patch ??? re:: “UPDATE 7/28/09: Based largely off of the community’s response to this feature, we will be releasing a “patch” for this issue. This patch, which will be available on or around August 18th, 2009, will hide your age in your profile during the 35-day verification period”
August 18th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Nancy,
This is being rolled out to all users today. Due to the size of Yahoo’s network, this release will take much of the day. Some of you may already see this feature, other users will see it by the end of the day today.
-Melissa
August 18th, 2009 at 10:23 am
I HAVE HAD TO HIDE MY PROFILE INFO. DUE TO THE FACT YOU HAVE TAKEN IT APOND YOUR SELF’S TO DISPLAY MY AGE…I GAVE NO ONE THE RIGHT TO DISPLAY MY AGE….I AM ANGERY ABOUT THIS.PLEASE TAKE MY AGE OFF MY PROFILE FOR ALL TO SEE, YOU HAD NO BUSINESS IN DISPLAYING MY AGE…TAKE IT OFF NOW PLEASE….
August 18th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I think that Yahoo is working to make things better. But 35 days to wait it’s too long. In my case, there are a mistake and my age appears like 120 years old, hahaha, it looks like a bad joke.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:44 am
My age is a fixed date in history. Why or how would I need to change.
August 19th, 2009 at 8:47 am
My age and birth date is a recorded fact. Can’t change that.
Is this comment acceptable?
August 19th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
I still not able to hide or change my age WHY?????????
August 23rd, 2009 at 2:28 pm
i don’t think so why i have to change my age
August 25th, 2009 at 8:38 am
Demak, August 25, 2009, Hours: 22:34 pm
I could not agree at all with your ideas, because in my opinion, is less relevant if the personal profile data should be published.
-BRAM IRIANTO
-rockyblank @ ymail.com
August 28th, 2009 at 9:00 am
How am i supposed to know that my connections can’t see my age while i can? i am able to change it, but to me my age is still there on my profile.
August 28th, 2009 at 10:54 am
For some reason I can not change my age cause it is totaly wrong and not only that it says I am a 57yrs old male and I am a 28yrs old female? I have never changed them but they are wrong? I try to change them and tells me that I can’t do it at this time but it has siad this for a week now?
August 29th, 2009 at 11:57 am
I don’t feel comfortable creating secret questions and answers for Yahoo …. These will never be created by me. I’ll download my important existing Yahoo emails and delete my account.
I’ve been very dissatisfied since the closure of 360.
Microsoft’s Messenger looks like another alternative for IM, but there are multitudes of of others
Looking for Greener pastures as Yahoo gets covered in S**t
August 29th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
As far as I know, I have updated my account information whenever Yahoo has requested me to do so. Also, I have always had my age displayed in my profile.
Today I received notification from a group owner that I was denied membership because my age is not shown in my profile. So I checked, and to my surprise it is not, but there is no way I can find to make it visible. Are you saying that I will have to wait 35 days before my age becomes visible again so I can reapply for membership on this group?????
August 30th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I am a group owner of 2 ADULT groups! How am I or my mod able to clarify whether someone is actually an adult now! And over the age of 18 to join! I don’t allow minors in the groups and don’t ever want them deleted by yahoo either! I work hard on them and have a LOT of time and work invested too! Do I deny people or let them in? So far I have denied them for not having a public profile and some for not having age listed! It’s like a catch 22 , if I let minors in, my groups get deleted, and if I don’t let legtimate members in, I lose out too! And so do they! There has got to be a better way! Do understand hiding ages and profiles, but it also makes it impossible to protect my groups then!
August 30th, 2009 at 11:13 am
I think most adults don’t really have an issue with this, I don’t! I’m 49 years old! But I understand because of preditors and minors, so why not just hide ages for minors, you would also know that someone is a minor that way too!
August 30th, 2009 at 11:32 am
After reading some of your responses to these type of questions, answer me this! so if someone tries to get into an adult group, they must be an adult or they wouldn’t have even gotten that far to begin with based on their original profile because yahoo stops access to anything adult if the are listed as minors. so as a group owner, it should be safe to let them in! And what is the point in having moderated approval or denial? Because what you have said is if we have open membership, that the only ones who even have access to an adult group to begin with are adults! Of course that is based on what someone puts in their profile to begin with when they sign up! Which is actually anything they want! There has got to be a better way! Look at the tabacco companies! They will NOT send anything unless you send in a copy of your ID proving you are an adult! Of course now this is impossible because ot the number of yahoo members and something similar should have been incacted in the beginning!
September 1st, 2009 at 10:20 am
This is my thought on this age hiding thing. Its bad the only reason to hide your age would be to fool someone into thinking that your younger or older then you are. besides I saw nothing wrong with the old profile that we use to have before 360. It was simple no waiting periode and it was on your profile. now even if you have had a profile and a 360 for a year or long your age is hiden and you cant change it if you wanted to of 35 day. whats up with that? I have had this profile since 6/24/2006 and im 45 years of age but dose my profile show it. no it dont now but it did before all this. makes me want to just get rid of my yahoo and find something else. its one problem after another when 360 came out I did what was asked and now its another change and not for the better.
September 8th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
I can’t believe this. My age has been completely dropped off my profile. Why!??! I am not ashamed of my age. I recently changed to 59 years old. How do I go about reinstating it? How will I know when the 35 day period is passed? This is incredibly invasive.
September 9th, 2009 at 6:33 am
i think no very important my age for other.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Forgiveness i know why for a little gift we ask for the age and profile, this profile since 12/1/2001 and in 43 years of age bul dose my profile schow it did before all this ; it i am an economist generalist by training specialized in budgetory and financial managementcontoland one speciality in Audit marketing/ manager, i am teaching assisting contract employee(Traffic policeman) in IRIMA/CF university Institut. Ican make of independent consultation with compny and body if find, i am spirit to look for one better work somewhere elese.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:38 am
My age doesn’t show at all! And I need it displayed. You say the age is displayed but it is not on my profile. Please help. Thanks.
September 16th, 2009 at 11:40 am
Yahoo company’s make good communication,it’s very office to work evry day, because haved good mens and womans maked there , we’re very happy that personnel’s is making general infoemtion service, she went becam expert of communication , there’re having a good teaching communication’s and publicity ;thanks lot.
September 17th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I can’t access my profile, because it says that I do not have access to it! Why cant I access it? Can you please help me?
September 20th, 2009 at 12:15 am
If you build it you can fix it everone has an oppion and thay should be helped .
September 24th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
need help
September 26th, 2009 at 1:35 am
I still can’t change me age……. these 35 days have passed now?
My profile is hidden………..BUT I can see my age in Yahoo Message Boards………..Melissa???
September 27th, 2009 at 11:20 am
sa ne peut ‘il pas etre ecrit en francais sa serais beaucoup mieux , sans sa je supprime tout je ne voie pas linterer de garder un espace perso ou blog si je ne comprend pas se que je fait ….morphee
September 29th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
hmmm… i guess its okay. I don’t really need a profile anyways!!! Sorry for me worrying!
September 29th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
good girl
October 5th, 2009 at 4:54 pm
umm…a… im a guy
October 7th, 2009 at 12:59 am
how can i change my security questions
October 11th, 2009 at 8:10 am
I completely agree with the critics. Yahoo keeps changing stuff (like the “contacts” format in email), blanking out my age WITHOUT MY PERMISSION OR KNOWLEDGE, and arbitrarily making changes when it happens to suit some IT person, the hell with the customers.
I’m about ready to switch to gmail.
Yahoo is way too big for its britches!
October 13th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I agree with the rest of people that say…1. Big Hassle…2. Pricavy invasion…and i would like to add they remind me of paypal and facebook and all the rest who want to steal your info and not give it back or ever let you close your account….what is the reason…who knows but it cant be too good…beware!
October 13th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
i dont like the idea of other pple sighning on in my mane and not being able 2 do anything about it i would like it 2 stop
November 14th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
November 15th, 2009 at 1:52 am
how to edit my age
November 16th, 2009 at 2:14 am
It is awful that I can’t edit my birthdate in my yahoo account info. anyone knows how to deal with it?
November 17th, 2009 at 5:22 am
it doesnt matter what your age is !!!
November 17th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
These profiles are ridiculous. I keep getting emails that say someone has written in my guestbook. Click the link to view the comment and the link takes me to my profile and there’s no comment there. What a fricken waste!
November 17th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
It will not let post a blog on my profile. Can u help me to understand why?