# Yahoo Search privacy rating

Yahoo's web search engine. Searches are collected with cookie, device and account identifiers, shared with search partners, and used to personalize results and ads.

## Summary

Yahoo Search scores 32 out of 100 (grade F) on the search engines criteria. It meets 3 of 11 criteria: transparency report, tells users about requests and TLS configuration. It partly meets security headers, no profile-based ads and no account needed. It does not meet open source, no trackers or telemetry, no ads or data sales, independent audit and no search history logs. It is based in the United States: Five Eyes member; subject to the US CLOUD Act. Automated tests: SSL Labs grade A+ and Mozilla HTTP Observatory grade B+.

- Website: https://search.yahoo.com
- Jurisdiction: United States. Five Eyes member. Subject to the US CLOUD Act.
- Home page trackers: none found
- Category: [Search engines](https://privacyratings.com/search-engines/)
- Also rated: [Yahoo Mail](https://privacyratings.com/email-providers/yahoo-mail/) (Email providers)
- Grade: F (32/100)

## Criteria

| Criterion | Answer | Note | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | No | Closed source. |  |
| No trackers or telemetry | No | Search queries, IP addresses and browser identifiers are collected and may be shared with search partners, and this cannot be turned off. | https://legal.yahoo.com/us/en/yahoo/privacy/products/searchservices/index.html |
| No ads or data sales | No | Funded by advertising, including interest-based ads. | https://legal.yahoo.com/us/en/yahoo/privacy/adinfo/index.html |
| Independent audit | No | No independent audit is published. |  |
| Transparency report | Yes | Yahoo publishes counts of government data requests by country and how it responded, in half-yearly reports. | https://www.yahooinc.com/transparency/reports/government-data-requests/JUL-DEC-2024/index.html |
| Tells users about requests | Yes | Yahoo's policy is to notify users about third-party requests for their data before disclosure, except where prohibited by law. | https://www.yahooinc.com/transparency/about/faq-glossary.html |
| TLS configuration | Yes | Grade A+ | https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/analyze.html?d=search.yahoo.com&hideResults=on |
| Security headers | Partial | Grade B+ (80/100+) | https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/observatory/analyze?host=search.yahoo.com |
| Modern web standards | Not tested yet | Not tested yet. |  |
| No search history logs | No | Search queries are collected with IP addresses and browser identifiers, and search history is kept for signed-in users. | https://legal.yahoo.com/us/en/yahoo/privacy/products/searchservices/index.html |
| No profile-based ads | Partial | Interest-based ads use activity and searches by default, and users can opt out in Yahoo's privacy controls. | https://legal.yahoo.com/us/en/yahoo/privacy/adinfo/index.html |
| No account needed | Partial | Search works without an account; some features are only available to registered users. | https://legal.yahoo.com/us/en/yahoo/privacy/products/searchservices/index.html |

Source: https://privacyratings.com/search-engines/yahoo-search/
Edit: https://github.com/privacyratings/privacyratings.com/edit/main/ratings/search-engines/yahoo-search.md