Yahoo didn't have a good 2016. Verizon's £3.6 billion takeover may or may not go through as the ailing internet giant stumbles from crisis to crisis.
In September, it revealed 500 million customers had data stolen in 2014, which employees knew about at the time; and in December it said a further one billion customers had been hit in an attack in 2013. This is now being investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to disclose the hacks to investors earlier, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The SEC requested documentation from Yahoo in December, says the WSJ report, and is still working through the information.
To add to the confusion, in January 2017 Yahoo announced it would rename itself Altbaba as part of a wide-ranging restructuring. The changes will also see 11 board members step down, including CEO Marissa Mayer.
In October 2016 Reuters reported Yahoo created software at the request of the NSA or FBI to scan through millions of customers' emails.
While the company hasn't confirmed or denied the reports (a statement said it complies with the law) the issue has raised serious concerns with privacy advocates.
Edward Snowden and Graham Cluely are just two of the security experts urging Yahoo customers to delete their accounts following allegations the company created a spying system for US intelligence agencies.
The company has given its users genuine reasons to consider if they should continue to use its services. If you're concerned here is how to delete your account:
Unsurprisingly, deleting an account with Yahoo will stop all user data stored with them being accessed. "Your account may not be recoverable: Only delete your account if you’re certain you’d like to remove it," Yahoo says.
Therefore, if you are considering closing an account, all emails, calendar entries and files should be backed-up and removed first. Flickr and Yahoo Messenger data will also be wiped. Yahoo has provided a rough guide explaining how data can be saved.
Save your emails
Emails, Yahoo advises, should be copied or forwarded to another address.
In October, according to the Associated Press, Yahoo disabled the feature that alllows users to forward incoming messages to a different address earlier this month, meaning users will still need to access their Yahoo inbox to see their messages. This was later reinstated.
You can also set up IMAP to access your email on your computer or mobile device. IMAP enables two-way syncing and the settings needed are as follows:
Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server
Server - imap.mail.yahoo.com Port - 993 Requires SSL - Yes Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server
Server - smtp.mail.yahoo.com Port - 465 or 587 Requires SSL - Yes Requires authentication - Yes
Alternatively you can set up POP mail. Go to Settings and Accounts, Access your Yahoo Mail elsewhere and choose Pop. These settings are below:
Server - pop.mail.yahoo.com Port - 995 Requires SSL - Yes Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server
Server - smtp.mail.yahoo.com Port - 465 or 587 Requires SSL - Yes Requires TLS - Yes (if available) Requires authentication - Yes
Export your contacts
Go to Contacts, Actions and Export. You can then choose to save your contacts as a .csv file for Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo CSV, a text file for Netscape/Thunderbird or .vcf files if these are supported by your other email provider.
Once you've chosen a file type, click Export Now.
Exporting your Calendar files depends on which service you want to export them too. Detailed information is available from Yahoo's Support page.
Deleting your account
Before going through the deletion process there is one important thing needed: the passwords to the account(s). If you have a child account linked to a main Yahoo account, this will need to be deleted first.
From this point, it is fairly simple to close an account.
The first step is to visit the company's "Terminating your Yahoo account" page. Here it will ask you to log-in to the account (if you aren't already).
Once on the termination page a quick scan of the company's final comments (and persuasions to get you to stay) will be presented.
One final password entry and confirming will then terminate the account.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
