Navigating Yahoo Account, Privacy & Subscription Dashboards

This is a short note to help users track (and bookmark) the various dashboards offered by Yahoo to comply with the various local, state and international regulations.

• Yahoo Privacy Dashboard (link) provides all the tunes and knobs to control what information you want to share
• Account Info (link) is where you set up 2FA authentication or Account key, and check recent activity audit
• Manage My Subscriptions (link) provides a dashboard to manage all your subscriptions (renew, cancel etc etc)
• Manage My Wallet (link) is a sub-dashboard within the Subscriptions module where you can add / delete your payment methods
• Yahoo Product Central (link) list all the available addons provided to users as part of bundling other services

Changelog:

• 2019-12-28: Create post

All Things Credit Card

Visa Supplier MCC Code: https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator-app/app/#/home/supplier-locator

Credit Report: Lock/Unlock, Freeze/Unfreeze

Freeze vs Lock ?

Both methods are ways to protect access to your credit reports from being used to open new accounts, but they are not fundamentally the same.

Differences:

• It is easier/simpler to unlock a credit lock vs unfreeze a credit freeze, BUT a freeze may afford legal protections that a lock doesn't.

When you freeze your credit at the 3 credit bureaus:

• You restrict access to your credit reports so most lenders can 't see your information until you unfreeze it
• Since a creditor is unlikely to open a new account in your name without checking your credit, that protects you from fraudulent accounts.
• Unfreezing your report requires the use of a password-protected account or PIN

Similarly, when you lock your account:

• You restrict most lenders to access your reports.
• But you can unlock your credit report immediately at any time, on your computer or mobile device, when you do want to allow access.

	Credit freeze	Credit lock

Cost	• Free at each bureau	• TransUnion: Free • Equifax: Free • Experian: first 30 days free, then $9.99 per month for a service that includes credit lock; no stand-alone lock available
When to use it	• When you believe your credit report and personal data have been exposed. • NerdWallet recommends freezes for most consumers, because the risk of exposure is high.	As a preventive measure to guard your credit report and personal data

When to you use a Freeze ?

• To protect access to your credit report.
• It's the smart option if you have been a victim of identity theft or believe your information has been compromised (Equifax breach anyone?).
• Federal law requires credit bureaus to offer free credit freezes and unfreezes.
• You can unfreeze your credit report by granting authorization to each of the credit bureaus to do so, via a password protected account or PIN.
• Freezing your credit report at all the 3 agencies is needed for fully protecting your information.
• You can still access your credit records and scores under a credit freeze. 

When to use a Lock ?

• Use it as a preventive measure to protect your information, or when your information has been compromised.
• It's convenience allows you to quickly lock/unlock to give access to potential creditors.
• Unlike a freeze, locks are not governed by Federal Law. 
• As with a freeze, a credit lock is most effective if you sign up at all 3 agencies.

You can sign up for a credit lock at each bureau’s website and also access the respective app to lock or unlock your credit report. Each one offers a slightly different version of the credit lock, so check exactly what you’re signing up for.

• Equifax’s free credit lock product is called Lock & Alert. The company says it will be free for life. The terms of service do not include an arbitration clause or class action lawsuit waiver; that means you don’t sign away your option to sue or join a lawsuit.
• Experian bundles its credit lock with other services. The least expensive option, IdentityWorks Plus at $9.99 a month, includes a credit lock, identity theft insurance and alerts when information changes on your report at all three bureaus. Its terms of service do include an arbitration clause and class action waiver.
• TransUnion’s free product, administered under TransUnion’s TrueIdentity brand, offers the lock/unlock option and other features, but the service agreement does include an arbitration clause and class action waiver. It also requires users to agree to receive targeted marketing materials.

Experian

• https://usa.experian.com/login/#/index?br=exp
• View Report
• Lock and Unlock: You can only do so if you subscribe to their Premium Service
• If your report is locked, you can unlock it with the basic subscription (but you can't lock).
• ID Notify:
• View Report
• Lock and Unlock (as long as you subscribe to the service)
• https://www.freecreditscore.com
• View Report
• FICO Score
• Freeze Center: https://www.experian.com/freeze/center.html
• From this site, you can add and/or remove a freeze. The process is done via submitting a form (vs toggling a button) which makes the process not convenient at all, but at least there is a way to "do it online".

NOTE: There is no "free" service to Freeze and Unfreeze your credit access.

Equifax

• https://lockandalert.equifax.com
• Lock and Unlock
• https://my.equifax.com/membercenter/#/login
• Freeze and Unfreeze
• If your report is locked, it will ask you to "Convert Lock to Freeze"

TransUnion

• https://membership.trueidentity.com/tucm/dashboard.page#
• View Report
• Lock and Unlock
• https://service.transunion.com/dss/login.page
• Freeze and Unfreeze
• If report is locked, it will ask you to convert Lock to Freeze

... Remember remember, the 6th of November ...

When 0 means true

What is the output of this ?



You probably guess correct, the output is "Yes", but probably for the wrong reason.

In Unix world, "0" means true, and "1" means false. In this case, the "[" operator is equivalent to "test 1", which evaluates to "0" (true).

Hence the output is "Yes" !

Long and winding road, aka "Deleting a mail in iOS7 using a @gmail account"

If you are using a @gmail account on iOS7 using the native mail client, you might notice that it is not straight forward to delete a particular email, up to the point to as if Google does not want you to delete any emails, but instead to "Archive" them.

So, how many steps are required to delete an email ? 4 steps. That's definitely a step in the right directions for usability?

1. Swipe left to show the contextualized menu. (User see "More" and "Archive", but no "Delete" option).
2. Touch "More" to reveal yet another UIActionSheet. (Still no "Delete" option).
3. Touch "Move Message" to get a list of folders (including the "Trash").
4. Select "Trash" and pray that you don't select another folder due to "fat fingers". Otherwise it's even more work.

I understand the need for Archive, but even more I don't want my mailbox to be clobbered with unwanted emails. Why why ?

Flickr ID vs Yahoo! ID

Are you a Flickr user ? Or are you new to Flickr and want to take advantage of the recent announcement of 1TB of free storage to store your photos indefinitely and share with friends and families ? Are you confused about the difference between your Flickr ID and why do you need a Yahoo! ID ? Then you might find this article useful.

A long time ago before Flickr was acquired by Yahoo!, users had one way to access their photos. You login to flickr.com and that was it. Everything was confined to the flickr.com domain. No mess, no confusion. Pretty simple huh.

That was then. Fast forward to now.

Why do I need a Yahoo! ID ?

• flickr.com users are required to sign in via yahoo.com.
• Once you are signed in, you will be redirected to flickr.com and everything that you can do on flickr.com stays the same.
• After you are redirected to flickr.com, you are now authenticated and authorized on your Flickr account. You might find this link useful in explaining what are the things that ** do not change **, even though you just logged in via yahoo.com

Flickr vs Yahoo! Sign In Sign Out Dance

Ever wondered what happened during sign out of flickr.com or yahoo.com ? This section is for you.

• When you signed into flickr.com, you are also automatically signed into yahoo.com
• When you signed out on flickr.com, you are not signed out from yahoo.com (.i.e. the reverse is not true)
• Curious mind ask: what happens when you signed out of yahoo.com ? You are still signed into flickr.com :)

Why does flickr.com require me to have a Yahoo! ID to sign ?

Most likely flickr.com is leveraging the Yahoo! login web servies.

• Security. Accounts getting hacked is a huge problem, and Yahoo! has the scale to handle those.
• Spam. Creating fake / spamming accounts is another huge problem, and Yahoo! has the scale to handle those.
• Overall, let Yahoo! take care of the infrastructure, and let Flickr focus on building the best photo experience.

As mentioned above, once you logged in via the yahoo.com Login Page, you are immediately signed in to flickr.com and redirected there. And you don't have to use any Yahoo! products in order to have a fully functional Flickr experience. Using any Yahoo! products are optional, entirely up to you.

Ok, so what's the difference between a Flickr ID and a Yahoo! ID ?

As of now, every Flickr account is associated with a Yahoo! account. There is no work around this. One can only associate a Flickr account with one Yahoo! account, and every Yahoo! account can only be associated with one Flickr account.

You ** only ** use your Yahoo! account to sign in to your Flickr account.

Once you are logged in, everything happens on flickr.com. Your Flickr ID applies to flickr.com only. For example, you receive your FlickrMail through your Flickr ID.

Advanced Users Only

Remember that each Flickr ID can be associated with a Yahoo! ID. Flickr allows you to change which Yahoo! account you want to use with your Flickr account.

But what I want to cover here is what happens to my Flickr account if I associate it with a different Yahoo! account?

Nothing changes on your Flickr account. The following stays exactly as before: contacts list, gallery, favorites, group subscriptions.

All your contacts linked to your Flickr ID will remain "as is". Remember, everything on flickr.com is tied to your Flickr ID. Nothing changes in that respect. That means, your contacts list, gallery, favorites, group subscriptions will remain unchanged.

The ** only ** thing that changes is next time you have to sign into flickr.com, you should remember to use your newly assigned Yahoo! account.

Summary

So in effect, nothing on your Flickr account is affected. You will simply use the newly associated Yahoo! ID to sign into flickr. That's about it.

Hopefully you are now enlightened :).