Just like other Yahoo! properties, you’re able to manage your settings right from your profile by visiting the http://profiles.yahoo.com/settings/updates/ page. Here, you’ll be able to select whether or not you want to  share your updates with “Anyone” “My Connections” or “No One”.

(It is important to note that the first time you try to adjust your “Share Settings” for Yahoo! Groups, you’ll have to scroll down to the bottom of the “Manage My Updates” page, and then select “Show All Yahoo! Sources” to expand a larger list of Yahoo! properties, including several Yahoo! Groups properties).

Once you’ve configured your settings, you can adjust your opt-in and opt-out preferences. These can be managed on a group-by-group basis, and are done from Yahoo! Groups, not your profile on Yahoo!.

Here’s how:

To get started, first visit your My Groups page (http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups ). Then, click on the “Edit My Groups” tab where you’ll see a column titled “Yahoo! Updates.” From here, you’ll be able to adjust your updates settings for each group you’re a member of.

You can opt to “Share my Updates” and “Prompt me before sending updates” or, “Never prompt me before sending updates.”

Once you’ve configured your privacy settings accordingly, return to your favorite group and test it out by uploading a photo. When you’re through uploading a photo, we’ll prompt you with a pop-up window, asking you whether or not you want to share this update with your connections.

You can opt to keep this pop-up on (so that it appears each time you upload a photo), or, you can switch it off, by checking the box that reads “Don’t ask me for this group again.” Please note that by checking this box you’re granting Yahoo! permission to share all of your photo updates for THIS GROUP ONLY with your connections. You may change this setting at any time by visiting the My Groups page.

After you click “Yes” your new photo will appear on your profile page on Yahoo!, under the “Updates” section.

Please note, the update does take some time before it shows up on your profile. We have designed to system to send data to your profile in series of buckets rather than every single request.

It’s important to note that what YOU see on your Updates page is a bit different than what your connections will see.

Here’s an example of what you’ll see (if you were to upload 5 LOL cat images to your group):

As the “updater” (or “uploader”) you’ll see each image broken down into individual updates, giving you the option of deleting updates, one-by-one, should you change your mind. (To delete an update, just click on the grey “x” next to the update).

However, your connections would see a more condensed view (like what you see below):

And that’s it! If you want to completely opt out of Yahoo! Groups Updates, be sure that all of your Group settings are set to “Never” share my updates (this setting is found on the “My Groups” page) and, that on your profiles page, you have set your Yahoo! Groups settings to be viewable by “No One.”

For more details on privacy, profiles, and more, please check out this particular post that was initially written for Answers users, but covers major questions and concerns regarding profiles and privacy.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

UPDATE: If you are logged in using a broadband Yahoo! account (@sbcglobal.net, @att.net, etc.) please be sure to follow the steps outlined on the “Update for Broadband Users” post INSTEAD of the tutorial below.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

Below you’ll find a quick video tutorial on how to link your alias IDs to your primary Yahoo! profile. This tutorial also shows you how to set your profile to be viewable by “anyone” as opposed to just your connections– the default setting.

The end of the video mentions checking out the “next tutorial on creating a new alias”– I’ll get this tutorial up and posted for you either later today or tomorrow, which will walk you through the steps on how to create a new alias.

Melissa Daniels
Yahoo! Community Manager

UPDATE: The tutorial on how to add and delete aliases has been posted and can be found here.

UPDATE: If you are logged in using a broadband Yahoo! account (@sbcglobal.net, @att.net, etc.) and are trying to add or delete an alias please be sure to follow the steps outlined on the “Update for Broadband Users” post.

For those of you who cannot view the video, here’s how you link your aliases:

1. Log into your profile at http://profile.yahoo.com
2. Click on “Settings” in the upper right hand corner
3. Click on “Search” in the right hand column
4. “Check” the box that reads “Allow people to find my profile by searching for my first name, last name, or display name”
5. “Check” the boxes next to each of the aliases you’d like to make “searchable,” found in the list below
6. Click Save