Yahoo Re-Enables Mail Forwarding Citing A Temporary Pause For Platform Upgrades
Yahoo has turned back on the automatic forwarding feature for Yahoo Mail users after previously disabling the function as part of what the firm claimed was planned maintenance. It's sticking with that explanation, saying the temporary disruption was part of a broader upgrade to its email service that's been taking place over the course of the year.
"Last week, we temporarily disabled the ability to add new automatic forwarding in Yahoo Mail. As of today, auto-forward is enabled again for all Mail users," said Michael Albers, VP of Product Management, Yahoo Mail. "We apologize for the interruption."
"Why the pause? Over the past year, Yahoo Mail has been upgrading its platform. This has allowed us to bring a better search experience to Yahoo Mail, add multiple account support, and improve performance as we quickly scale this new system globally. The feature was temporarily disabled as part of this process," Albers added.
The timing of Yahoo's decision to disable automatic forwarding drew suspicion from many users, as it happened right around the company revealed that some 500 million accounts had been compromised from a massive security breach dating back to 2014. Following that, it came to light that Yahoo built a sophisticated email scanner for the U.S. government that the NSA could use to spy on users.
Those aren't the kinds of things that make users want to stick around, though without an automatic forwarding feature to rely on, many wondered if Yahoo was essentially holding users hostage, especially as it negotiates a sale to Verizon. Yahoo insists that's not the case, that the timing was coincidental.
We'll have to take Yahoo at its word on that one. In any event, the feature is working again, so carry on everyone.
"Last week, we temporarily disabled the ability to add new automatic forwarding in Yahoo Mail. As of today, auto-forward is enabled again for all Mail users," said Michael Albers, VP of Product Management, Yahoo Mail. "We apologize for the interruption."
"Why the pause? Over the past year, Yahoo Mail has been upgrading its platform. This has allowed us to bring a better search experience to Yahoo Mail, add multiple account support, and improve performance as we quickly scale this new system globally. The feature was temporarily disabled as part of this process," Albers added.
The timing of Yahoo's decision to disable automatic forwarding drew suspicion from many users, as it happened right around the company revealed that some 500 million accounts had been compromised from a massive security breach dating back to 2014. Following that, it came to light that Yahoo built a sophisticated email scanner for the U.S. government that the NSA could use to spy on users.
Those aren't the kinds of things that make users want to stick around, though without an automatic forwarding feature to rely on, many wondered if Yahoo was essentially holding users hostage, especially as it negotiates a sale to Verizon. Yahoo insists that's not the case, that the timing was coincidental.
We'll have to take Yahoo at its word on that one. In any event, the feature is working again, so carry on everyone.
