With all the talk of Google refusing to hand over search records to the
government, here is a story to remind us of why Google is far superior to Yahoo.
Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, is serving a ten-year prison sentence in
China for sending an email to the USA. He was accused of “illegally
providing state secrets to foreign entities†by using his Yahoo email
account.According to the court transcript of the evidence that led to Shi Tao’s
sentencing, the US internet company Yahoo provided account-holder
information on him.Shi Tao was accused of sending an email summarizing an internal Communist
Party directive to a foreign source. The Communist Party directive had
warned Chinese journalists of possible social unrest during the anniversary
of the June 4 Movement (in memory of the Tiananmen crackdown), and directed
them not to fuel it via media reports.
Article continues
here.
The amazing part is how Yahoo gets involved in items like this or handing
over search records but when issues of child pornography comes up they turn the
other cheek. Le me make it simple – if you want e-mail get Gmail. If you want to
IM get Google Talk. If you want a customized home page, Google has that. If you
want to start a blog then Blogger is the place for you (which is owned by
Google). Stop using Yahoo because you never know what they will do next.