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Internet portal Yahoo has changed its privacy and marketing policies to require users to "opt out" of marketing pitches. Privacy advocate Jason Catlett called Yahoo's changes a "large step backwards."

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo posted the policy changes on its Web site March 28 and began e-mailing notices to members of its user groups and other services. The changes affect U.S. customers only, and the company issued no formal announcement about them.

According to statements by Yahoo, the changes consolidate three privacy policies that the company had for children, financial services, and user discussion groups into a single policy. The company also modified its marketing efforts from an "opt-in" system to an "opt-out" system--and reset all user preferences for newsletters and marketing pitches.

That means users who signed up for Yahoo services in the past and who did not ask to receive marketing information will now begin receiving all of Yahoo's newsletters and pitches--at least, until they tell the company to stop.

"It is designed to make it easier for you to manage the marketing communications you receive from Yahoo and ensure you get the latest relevant information to meet your needs," the company said in its letter to users. "We have reset your marketing preferences and, unless you decide to change these preferences, you may begin receiving marketing messages from Yahoo about ways to enhance your Yahoo experience, including special offers and new features."

A spokeswoman for the company who didn't want to be named said that this way customers who signed up for Yahoo back when the company had fewer advertising and marketing pitches will now be able to see those pitches.

But Catlett, president of Green Brook, New Jersey-based Junkbusters, said the new policy really just allows Yahoo to send users more spam. He called the changes a setback for the cause of privacy and for antispam efforts.

"Other companies have done this before and took a lot of criticism for it," Catlett said. "It is very pushy and it is just wrong. Why can't these companies take no for an answer? Why do we have to keep saying no, no, no, no, no?"

In addition to creating a single privacy policy, Yahoo told users it made other changes, too. It will now reserve the right to share private information about users it suspects of criminal activity and also said it reserves the right to share information in the event the company is sold.