Yahoo! China

The situation being discussed here is a fairly recent study about Yahoo! and how they responded to a particular customer’s privacy issue. In the summer of 2004, Yahoo! China received a request from the People’s Republic of China for the full name and address associated with the Yahoo! username “houyan1989@yahoo.com.cn”. The government didn’t explain any reason as to why they needed this information, or what they would be using it for, and it would be crossing treacherous grounds for Yahoo! to request this information.

Many people would think it unethical to simply hand over a user’s private information without good reason, but Yahoo!’s privacy policy had it covered. Their privacy policy stated that Yahoo! would never divulge a user’s personal information, unless it was officially requested through a court order or other legal means. I would imagine that “houyan1989” approved the privacy policy when creating his account, thereby giving legal permission to give the Chinese government his information if they asked for it, though I doubt he realized what he was signing when he did so, as many users will admit to skimming the privacy policy, or skipping it altogether. While that may make this situation morally unethical, it certainly does not make it illegal, or even unexpected.

In my opinion, when Yahoo! divulged the user’s information, they were only doing something that most business owners would have done, were they in the same position. Logically speaking, it wouldn’t make sense to risk compromising your business, just to keep one user’s privacy in place. I think Yahoo! could have certainly handled it better, and could have even requested further clarification as to why the Chinese government was requesting the user’s personal information.

I also believe that, despite the legality of their actions, and despite their reasoning, it was not a decision that followed moral ethics. If I were a user, expecting my information to be kept private, I would be very...