Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Does adding a false name, or not adding your name when registering for a yahoo e-mail account violate the TOS?

A friend of mine wants to start an e-mail account on this website, but claims that the yahoo! terms of service state that they can terminate an account if the personal information given when registering for the account is false or ommited.





This poses a problem for my friend, because he doesn't want to give the website his name and doesn't want yahoo! to interrupt contact with people by terminating the account at an inopportune moment, as since this account will be used for school, an inopportune termination might not end well.





My friend plans to just submit his initials instead of his full name if he is not allowed to omit the name, but because of the somewhat vague nature of the terms of service page, isn't sure whether this places his account in any future jeopardy.





Is my friend just paranoid, or does yahoo! truly feel they must absolutely require a person's name during registration? If so, does this mean that if yahoo merely suspects your name is false, they will punish you?Does adding a false name, or not adding your name when registering for a yahoo e-mail account violate the TOS?
yeah but they can't enforce that


people do it all the timeDoes adding a false name, or not adding your name when registering for a yahoo e-mail account violate the TOS?
It will be a violation if you give false information.





'; If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or Yahoo! has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Yahoo! has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof).';


http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/uto鈥?/a>
Yes. People providing a false name when creating a Y! account will result in its immediate termination without warning, as stated in Part 3, Subections a and b in the Terms of Service (under the heading 'Your Registration Obligations'):





YOUR REGISTRATION OBLIGATIONS





In consideration of your use of the Service, you represent that you are of legal age to form a binding contract and are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or other applicable jurisdiction. You also agree to: (a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Service's registration form (the ';Registration Data';) and (b) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or Yahoo! has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, Yahoo! has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Service (or any portion thereof).





Also, in the very set of rules, read Part 6, Subection c (under the heading 'Member Conduct')





MEMBER CONDUCT





You agree not to use the Service to:





c. impersonate any person or entity, including, but not limited to, a Yahoo! official, forum leader, guide or host, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.





I suggest you warn your friend not to do any of that. Refer him to the Terms of Service.
No, tell him to put whatever name he wants. I've been doing it for years and haven't gotten into trouble yet. Stop worrying about it.





FYI: The guy above me is a moron. Literally THOUSANDS of people do this everyday on Yahoo. I seriously doubt Yahoo is going to take the time to investigate each and every person, of millions, and make sure everyone is using a correct name, address etc.


I had my old yahoo email account hacked into by a psycho on Ebay because I used my real name. All he needed was my yahoo email and with that he was able to hack it and find out my real name, home address, phone number and read all of my saved emails---many had important personal info. in them. I learned my lesson from that incident. Now, I only use my initials because it is not safe to use your full name. Yahoo email is soooo easy to hack and if you use a real name or full name and address you are really just asking for trouble.

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