Yahoo to face legal action over email spying

Non-Yahoo mail users claim that company intercepted and analysed emails in order to boost advertising revenue

Yahoo will be forced to face a US class action lawsuit, after it was accused of illegally accessing the content of emails sent to Yahoo Mail users from non-Yahoo Mail accounts, and using the data to boost advertising revenue.

A Californian judge said that people who sent emails to or received emails from Yahoo Mail subscribers from 2 October 2011 are entitled to sue the company as a group under the federal Stored Communications Act for alleged privacy violations. She added that a select class of non-Yahoo mail users based in California since 2 October 2012 could sue under the state's own Invasion of Privacy Act.

The non-Yahoo Mail users claim that the company intercepted and analysed the content of their emails, including attachments, with the goal of creating targeted advertising to use on its 275 million email subscribers.

The vast majority of Yahoo's revenue (nearly 80 per cent) came from its search and display advertising last year.

Non-Yahoo Mail account holders are seeking an injunction to bar the alleged interceptions as well as damages. Yahoo has argued in its defence that some of the plaintiffs had consented to its activity, as they continued to email Yahoo subscribers even after learning how the US company used the information. But the Californian judge rejected those arguments.

A class action lawsuit can make it easier to receive larger damages as well as a wider range of resolutions at a lower cost.

A similar case was brought before the same judge - US District Judge Lucy Koh - last year with a class action brought against Google on behalf of Gmail and non-Gmail users. However, Koh rejected that case in March 2014, stating that it was hard to determine which users had consented to Google's activity.