Advertising is a core part of what we do at Yahoo. Thanks to ads from us and our partners, we can offer you many of our websites and apps—what we call our "Consumer Services"—at no cost.

In addition to showing ads on our own services, we help other companies by providing them with our "Digital Advertising Services". This means we also place ads on other companies' websites and apps.

How we select the ads we show you

• Ads are more effective when they are shown to people who are likely to be interested in the product or service advertised. In order to do this, we use the information we collect from you and receive from others to select the ads to show you.
• We may select these ads based on the content of the page or app on which they appear. For instance, if you are viewing a news article about a recently released album, Yahoo may show you an ad for a music store that sells albums. Similarly, ads in finance content may be related to financial services. These kinds of ads are contextual ads.

• We also select ads based on information we have collected from you or received from others about your browsing and search behavior. These ads are called interest-based ads.

  • We show some interest-based ads to you because of an isolated online activity, such as if you were to go to an online bookstore and view a particular novel. The bookseller might want to show you an ad for that novel because you’re more likely to be interested in buying it than the average online user. This kind of interest-based advertising is called retargeting or remarketing.
  • We show other interest-based ads to you because of your online activities over time and across different websites and apps you use on your various devices. We may collect information about your online activities in this way in order to make predictions about what products or services might be of interest to you in the future. Based on these predictions, we and other companies may categorize you as belonging to an audience to which advertisers may be interested in showing ads. For example, if you’ve recently visited a car dealer’s website, you might be grouped in an "Auto Intenders" audience and a car dealer who places ads with us might want us to show ads to the users who are in this segment.
• We also select ads to show you based on other information you provide to us or that we collect from other sources, such as your gender, age or location.

Data Used To Provide More Relevant Advertising

At Yahoo, we want to show you ads that are interesting and useful to you. To do this, we might use the information you give us or that we collect, which could include details that on their own could reasonably identify you. This helps us customize the ads you see when you use our Consumer Services or visit websites and apps that use our Digital Advertising Services.

We also pay attention to how you interact with the ads. This helps us make our ads better, and to make sure you don't keep seeing the same ones over and over, and it lets us see how well the ads are working.

Yahoo will not personalize ads to users based on data that is considered sensitive under applicable law without appropriate consents.

Data we use

• Information about your browsing behavior and your search queries on Yahoo’s search services may be used to display more relevant ads. For more information about how your search queries may be used to display more relevant ads, visit Search Services.
• Yahoo's systems may analyze your commercial emails to match and serve targeted advertising. For more information about how your commercial emails may be used to display more relevant ads, visit Communication Products.
• Yahoo may tailor ads based on your location. For more information about how Yahoo uses location information, please visit our Location page.
• Yahoo may tailor ads based on the information you provide to us, such as the information you provide when you register for an account, or update your account information. Types of information we may use include your age, gender, favorite sports teams, or stock symbols.
• We use data that we receive from other sources to tailor the ads that we show to you. For example, we may use data that is publicly available or from commercial sources and combine it with other data we have collected or received about you.

More Information

• Yahoo uses a variety of technologies including IP Addresses, web beacons and SDKs, and cookies and similar technologies, to support Yahoo advertising services. Visit our Technical Identifiers page for more information.
• If you use a browser with limited cookie support, such as those enabled with Intelligent Tracking protection (ITP) or similar cookie blocking technologies, these technologies may interfere with some of your browser or cookie based opt-out choices with Yahoo. As a result, Yahoo may still personalize, display, or measure ads to you in these situations. Use the controls located within the "Personalized Advertising" section of your Privacy Dashboard to prevent this personalization, display, and measurement by Yahoo.
• Yahoo may personalize and serve advertisements to interactive devices, such as Smart or Connected TVs or "OTT" devices. Yahoo offers users choices to opt-out of personalized advertising when serving advertisements to such interactive devices, even if the interactive device or platform does not support such features. Use the controls located within the "Personalized Advertising" section of your Privacy Dashboard to prevent this personalization, display, and measurement by Yahoo. Within 48 hours, your opt-out preferences will be honored by Yahoo on all interactive devices connected to the same home network. Please note that you may need to opt-out again if you connect to a different network or reset your network settings. Alternatively, you may exercise the privacy controls available in the settings provided by your Smart/Connected TV manufacturer. For detailed instructions on using the privacy controls for most major Connected TVs and OTT devices, visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s Connected TV Choices page.

• Yahoo participates in multiple, regional self-regulatory bodies and is committed to adhering to their principles for interest-based advertising. While distinct, these entities are all cooperatives of companies committed to building responsible advertising policies across the Internet.

  • US: Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) - Learn more about its principles or opt-out from any of its participating companies.
  • Europe: European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA) - Learn more about its principles, or opt-out from any of its participating companies.
  • Canada: Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada (DAAC) - Learn more about its principles, or opt-out from any of its participating companies.
  • Australia: For users of Yahoo Sevens, see the Australian Digital Advertising Alliance (ADAA) - Learn more about its principles or opt-out from any of its participating companies.
  • Japan: For users of ONE by AOL and Boundless Inc., see the Data Driven Advertising Initiative (DDAI) - Learn more about its principles or opt-out from any of its participating companies.
  • New Zealand: Interactive Advertising Bureau of New Zealand (IAB) - Learn more about its principles.

Your Choices

Learn more about your choices about how Yahoo uses your data.

Questions and Suggestions

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Last updated July, 2025