Companies are losing confidence in Yahoo
Yahoo users have started to lose faith in the company following the theft of millions of account details and the revelation of collusion with the NSA and FBI. But it is not just users who are becoming disillusioned and looking to move elsewhere -- Yahoo's partners are also concerned.
One such company is StartPage, described as "the world's most private search engine". Concerned by privacy violations, it is ditching Yahoo search results from its metasearch tool Ixquick.eu. The parting of ways will take place by the end of the month, and StartPage CEO Robert Beens believes more companies will follow suit.
Yahoo has faced growing criticism over its lack of openness about the two recent privacy issues -- something StartPage is very concerned about. Based in the Netherlands, StartPage operates outside of US jurisdiction and has a firm focus on privacy. Speaking about severing ties with Yahoo, Beens said: "we no longer feel comfortable partnering with them".
He went on to say:
The Yahoo scandal illustrates why being based outside US jurisdiction is so important to our customers. People who care about privacy know that it's very hard to trust US Internet companies with their data because the government can force them to spy on customers.
Importantly -- and worryingly for Yahoo -- Beens says his company is not the only one with concerns about Yahoo's activities. This may be the first partner to walk away from the search company, but it probably won’t be the last.
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