Solved Yahoo's disastrous "Security" improvement

[gregrocker]

Yahoo has been asking me to change my password, which I finally did yesterday. It said I had a strong password.

My address book was them immediately spammed with everyone in it sent a link to a malicious site.

Today I try to sign in with my new ID and cannot sign in no matter how many times I try. Finally I am locked out of the account for 12 hours. It says I can only get back in sooner if they can email me a code to the primary email account they have on file - the very yahoo address they've locked down!


What kind of idiocy is this? This is my primary mail account where I do all of my business. I cannot go even a few hours without access to it, much less 12 hours. Why would there be no other way to revive it when they have my phone and an alternate email, besides mailing to the email account they've locked down?

Their phone help disconnects after holding for 20 minutes, the online Help pages fail to load when I try to email. I get the impression they are under massive attack.

 

[ThrashZone]

That is a wild thing to happen,
I gave up on Yahoo long ago,
But all alternative email addresses I've ever used go to separate email services,
Gmail reset goes to Hotmail,
Hotmail reset goes to gmail,..
None of them have a phone number gmail wants one badly I wonder why with their new tracking features

There's usually an option to either send the reset via text or email obviously I choose email but very bazar your predicament is :shock:

 

[gregrocker]

Resolved: I finally got the page to load at help.yahoo.com/Identity to fill out an email form with my alternative email addy, to which they immediately sent a working password change link that got me back into my account. I'm still not sure what happened to my "strong" password but I've changed it back to the old one that never had problems before.


I'm not ready to give up on them although there are periodic glitches. The fact they had the form to link my alternative email address in real time to get a password reset on a locked account is smart, but why not send it when the account is locked since they had it on file?

 

[NoN]

Resolved: I finally got the page to load at help.yahoo.com/Identity to fill out an email form with my alternative email addy, to which they immediately sent a working password change link that got me back into my account. I'm still not sure what happened to my "strong" password but I've changed it back to the old one that never had problems before.


I'm not ready to give up on them although there are periodic glitches. The fact they had the form to link my alternative email address in real time to get a password reset on a locked account is smart, but why not send it when the account is locked since they had it on file?

Got the same! Yahoo is forcing me to change my password and if i do skip it, it does take ages to load the page. So i fake changing password and go upper right my name to access directly to my account.

 

[ThrashZone]

It's always tough to switch to another email service for business or even personal,
But man it's really tough relying on a free service without phone support for a business,

I made a choice a while back the only reliable support for business is one you pay for like in my case Hostmonster which is a phone call away,
pop3 to a freebie for mobile alerts,
I'm actually relying to much on gmail for mobile,
I might have to switch it to Hotmail or outlook.com soon if Google keeps asking for a phone number
Glad you got it straighten out fairly quickly too

 

[gregrocker]

Then when you finally give them a number, they don't use it to send you anything when locking you out of the account.


I'm still shaking me head at the concept of sending the rescue code to the email address they've just locked for 12 hours. Who was in the meeting where they decided this? Monty Python players?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

...Their phone help disconnects after holding for 20 minutes, the online Help pages fail to load when I try to email. I get the impression they are under massive attack.

Where did you find phone help?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Yahoo had been jacked up ever since the Google refugee, Marissa Mayer, took over Yahoo and tried to make Yahoo mail into Gmail.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yea that is one odd item in the mix with Yahoo

I know what Google wants it for
http://www.sevenforums.com/security-news/334304-google-app-nearby-your-presence-will-known.html

 

[OvenMaster]

I used Yahoo for ages, then dumped it when they made some wholesale changes to their GUI. I switched to Mail.com a year ago and have been delighted with it. I should have changed years ago.
Last week when I wanted to try for a Yahoo account for a backup email service, there's no way I can create a new account without giving them a cellphone number?! Oh, no you don't. Even if I had a cellphone, Yahoo (and Gmail) wouldn't get my number if they held a gun to my head.

 

[ship691]

Please can someone create a yahoo account for me ?

Hi

Please can someone create a yahoo account for me ?

I do not have a mobile phone number that I am prepared to share with the Orwellian privacy violating mosters at yahoo. And without this I am unable to get a yahoo ID.

Please just use any random username and fill in any data they demand, randomly.

Many thanks

J

 

[bej]

I've been going through the same ring-a-round-the-rosie with my Yahoo e-mail for AT LEAST the past three months. They played this game one time before, and this time, I refuse to change my password. Takes a few more seconds to click through the requests for information but, that's life.
I think they are trying to get "free" e-mail users to drop their accounts or switch to paid ones. JMHO

 

[ship691]

I'm not giving Yahoo my phone number, no, not if you put a gun to my head.

These high-handed privacy invading corporations disgust me. But actually it's worse than that - it's actually quite sinister. George Orwell would be appalled.

So what is the answer?

 

[gregrocker]

Yahoo works well enough for me that I'm willing to continue after 10+ years even after the one disaster. I have nothing to hide, see no evidence they are doing any more spying than any other website's cookies can do. But you can mitigate that to the extent possible using Consumer Opt-out | NAI: Network Advertising Initiative.

 

[ship691]

I have nothing to hide, see no evidence they are doing any more spying than any other website's cookies can do. But you can mitigate that to the extent possible using Consumer Opt-out | NAI: Network Advertising Initiative.

So the fact that I demand a private life makes me ... a criminal? WTF? Where are you going with this Gregrocker?

Sorry but some of us wish to live in a FREE democracy. Many millions of lives have been lost to win our freedoms, and I am not prepared to sleep walk into handing our freedoms back on a plate. So, no, I absolutely refuse to live in a surveillance state, nor the possible threat of a surveillance state in years to come. Frankly your stance is either naive or part of the problem.

 

[gregrocker]

I just gave you a link for opting out of almost all web target advertsing, an initiative that was agreed to by advertisers to avoid having governments crack down with more laws but has been mostly buried by them.

Since I'm the only one I've seen on a major website disseminating this initiative's tool to avoid spying, who is doing more right now to curb spying?

Where did I say anything that indicates I agree with spying or other infringements on our freedom? My tutorials go in depth on how to avoid spying, intrusion, assure privacy to the point I have been criticized for being paranoid.

I would rather err cautiously on the side of privacy, not flail around attacking others who are doing real work disseminating widely the real palliatives the industry was forced to agree to, and may be the only source on the web doing so.

 

[ship691]

I am resolved on being spied on pretty severely by Google (and therefore by the security services).

However there are limits! I just want to use Yahoo's services without giving out my mobile phone number.

No, I don't want to tell them my bank balance, the names of my children, where I went to school, who my friends are/aren't, where I live, what I do for a living, what my father does for a living, what colour my skin is at the moment, nor what gender or size my genitals. I simply value my privacy. Why is this so hard?

Do we really live in such a Surveillance State that already this is impossible??

 

[ship691]

Bump?

 

[marsmimar]

Since Yahoo wants a mobile number, and since you're willing to have someone else create an account for you with "random" information, why not give Yahoo what they want ... a random mobile phone number. As long as you remember your log in user name and password, they won't have any need to use that random number to contact you, will they?

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Yahoo allows you to defer putting in a mobile number when entering the periodic password update. Does it allow that when creating an account?