Yahoo-Gmail Interaction?

[Smellincoffee]

Recently while visiting my parents, I used their computer to check the weather and realized that the top-most window was my mom's Yahoo summary, and it informed her that I had just posted on blogger. This concerns me.

I've never linked my Google account, which I use almost exclusively, to Yahoo, Hotmail, or any other clients. I also don't send or receive email from my mom on that account, because I prefer to keep family emails in a separate account. I don't like the fact that Yahoo is telling her when I update, in part for the content (I often comment on books about evolution, which as a Pentecostal she despises) and in part because I don't know how Yahoo is doing it.

I've checked my Gmail and blogger accounts for any link to my ill-used Yahoo account, and there are none. Does anyone know how Yahoo is retrieving this information, or how I can surreptitiously stop it from spying on me?

 

[Turner]

Is there an option in your blog to subscribe to it?

 

[Smellincoffee]

It's possible for people to "follow" the blog via Blogger, but that is not something I can see her doing. Her web experience is very...passive -- and more to the point, to my knowledge that 'following' option is for blogger only. I don't know of any interaction with Yahoo.

 

[PeteAtoms]

Try looking at your Google Account page and look what applications/services you have authorized to access your Google account.

The link should be near the top under the heading Security and appear as "Authorizing applications & sites"

Or maybe there is a feed from your Google Profile somehow? I never set up a Google profile, so maybe/maybenot.

 

[Turner]

Maybe she's smarter than she lets on. Us parents, we're pretty wily, ya know?

 

[PeteAtoms]

Ooh, Ooh... I just remembered there being a huge stink about the whole "Buzz" feature that Google rolled out and automatically turned on for all google (gmail) accounts. Buzz, IIRC, is like a google response to Twitter I think and broadcasts your online activities.

If you still haven't figured it out, check out your settings regarding Google Buzz. Admittedly, I know nothing about it (I just disabled it), but my gut tells me it may be something related to your problem (if not the source)...

 

[Smellincoffee]

Try looking at your Google Account page and look what applications/services you have authorized to access your Google account.

The link should be near the top under the heading Security and appear as "Authorizing applications & sites"

Or maybe there is a feed from your Google Profile somehow? I never set up a Google profile, so maybe/maybenot.

If you still haven't figured it out, check out your settings regarding Google Buzz. Admittedly, I know nothing about it (I just disabled it), but my gut tells me it may be something related to your problem (if not the source)...

Both pages tell me that there are no third-party sites authorized to retrieve updates from me.

Maybe she's smarter than she lets on. Us parents, we're pretty wily, ya know?

Maybe offline, but computer-wise she still hasn't gotten the hang of moving files from one place to another!

 

[Smellincoffee]

I have solved the problem -- effectively, at least. During my most recent visit I took the liberty of "hiding" my posts from her newsfeed. Curiously, it was only showing updates from one of my blogs - I have two, one for book reviews and the other for philosophical musings. Yahoo was using something called 'MyBlogLog'.

 

[PeteAtoms]

The interaction and relationships between a lot of online services these days are simply a headache. I think it only exists because not everyone uses the same services, but it makes privacy such a hassle to maintain.

I'm glad you sorted this out, hopefully nothing was exposed that you didn't want to be. Now you can troll the internet w/ reckless abandon (j/k).

 

[warpus]

I had a blogspot blog set up during my NZ trip so that I could write about my trip as it happened. My parents figured out how to click "follow me" and sign up so that they'd get emails when I wrote a new entry. Sounds like that's what happened here.