London: Yahoo has again come under the fire over privacy issues as its users are complaining that sensitive information is being received on email ids which were recently reassigned after being in dormant state for a year.
The new owners of the reassigned email ids are reportedly receiving personal emails intended for the previous owner.
The internet giant had announced in June that it those email addresses, which have been inactive for a year, will be reassigned to new owners.
According to the BBC, privacy experts believe that the company should address the issue immediately, while Yahoo said that it has taken a series of measures to address privacy and security fears.
A Yahoo representative explained that before recycling the inactive email ids, the company had attempted to reach the account owners in multiple ways to notify them that they needed to log in to their account or it would be subject to recycling.
The report said that Yahoo will be soon rolling out the feature called `Not My Email` where users can report an email that is not intended for them.
Owner of one such recycled email address, Tom Jenkins who is an IT security professional said that he has all the information about the previous owner of the account, including their Facebook details, residence, and even their schedule for a doctor`s appointment.
Spokesman for Privacy International, Mike Rispoli said that the risks were pointed out to Yahoo when it decided to announce the recycling, but the company downplayed these risks, and ignored critics.
Rispoli said that the email recycling scheme, an effort to re-engage old users and attract new ones, is resulting in some of the most intimate data being accessed by someone not known by the new owner without the previous one`s knowledge, the report added.
ANI
