9 March 2000. Thanks to anonymous.
Cryptome spoke today with Jackson Holtz (408-530-5266), Yahoo public relations representative, concerning the posting on a Geocities site a British secret report on assassination of Qadahfi, and the subsequent removal of the document from the site.
Mr. Holtz was directed to Cryptome's offering of the document, and its Geocities source URL.
Cryptome noted that there is an intense British investigation to learn how the Qadahfi document was offered on Geocities, and that a British person had been arrested recently as a result. And asked would he comment on whether Yahoo has been contacted for this investigation. Mr. Holtz said to comment on such matters would violate Yahoo's policy on customer privacy.
Mr. Holtz said it is Yahoo policy to neither confirm nor deny the reasons for the offering or removal of content on its Geocities web sites. Yahoo does not examine the content before it is offered, and does not review it unless a complaint is made. If reviewed in response to a complaint, the content is evaluated only according to the terms of Yahoo's service contract. Yahoo will never remove content that is in compliance with its terms of service contract -- except by court order.
Mr. Holtz said he could not comment on whether Yahoo received a court order to reveal information about the source of the the Qadahfi document or to remove it, nor comment on any other speculation for its offering or removal, for that would violate Yahoo's strict policy on the privacy of customers.
Cryptome asked Mr. Holtz whether he would be informed if a court order has been served on Yahoo about the Qadahfi offering and removal. He answered: not likely, but would rather say no comment.
Cryptome asked Mr. Holtz to inquire with Yahoo's legal department if such an order had been served on Yahoo, and whether the department would issue a statement about the removal of the Qadahfi document in order to assure that there has been no change in Yahoo's privacy policy and admirable reputation for providing private web sites. He agreed to look into that, but could not promise that Yahoo legal would respond.
Mr. Holtz asked Cryptome to not quote him on any of this for he was not an official Yahoo spokesperson. Cryptome asked to be directed to a spokesperson. Mr. Holtz said he could not do that. Cryptome said, then you are Yahoo's spokesperson, and your remarks are appreciated.
Mr. Holtz then said he would attempt to locate a person to whom Cryptome could talk, and agreed that public perception of Yahoo's reputation for privacy of its web sites was very important to the company.
Comments, contributions, rebuttals welcomed. Send to: yahoo@cryptome.org.