[DeadJohn]

" you consent to the collection and use (as set forth in the applicable privacy policy) of this information, including the transfer of this information to the United States and/or other countries for storage, processing and use by Yahoo and its affiliates"

Large companies often have server farms in multiple countries. They use it for backup, disaster recovery, and load distribution. I don't especially like the "use by affiliates" portion. That's overly broad but most large companies have similar clauses. The only way to avoid that is to stay off the internet.

Regardless of whether you drop your Flickr account, Verizon is one of the internet backbone providers. Your web traffic might already be passing through their servers even if they aren't your ISP. Assume that every email you send is scanned by Verizon, AT&T, etc. even if they don't read the contents they know the sender and recipient.

Similar stuff happens with paper mail. The outside of every letter is scanned. "The Man" knows every business that sends you a letter by cross referencing the return address and your address.

For an example of how far this goes, I purchased tickets directly on an airline's website. Full passenger names (but not email addresses) have to be provided. My wife's name was cross-referenced with other databases and Google automatically reminded her of the upcoming flight. I bought the tickets, yet the airline, credit card company, Google, and government instantly knew my wife's travel plans.

[micromacro]

For an example of how far this goes, I purchased tickets directly on an airline's website. Full passenger names (but not email addresses) have to be provided. My wife's name was cross-referenced with other databases and Google automatically reminded her of the upcoming flight. I bought the tickets, yet the airline, credit card company, Google, and government instantly knew my wife's travel plans.

I don't mind government knows my plans, since there are some limitations of privacy disclosure in that area (I hope). I do mind that private companies start treating customers like government, requesting to give up so much privacy so they can SELL it. They even don't want to do own digging job anymore, they want us to give them all personal information. From their side they guarantee nothing. They don't improve anything. And we have no control to know whom they sell it. It's like wild west in data mining, and we are just a source.
Btw, when I book tickets online, and don't have any google reminders yet. Perhaps because I don't use google chrome, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I start thinking about own website for photos. It's a pain, but seems better than flickr and other uploaders.

[r0ckstarr]

I use Flickr to host my pictures so that I can post them here. There are other options. I'll keep my Flickr account for the time being and see how it all changes. If you don't want your personal info posted online, don't post it online. To access my Flickr account, Yahoo has what? A name that's not my real name, and a phone number? I don't even think they have my phone number.

[Jonathan Mac]

I don't know what you think Verizon are capable of that Yahoo aren't... All these big companies are pretty much the same in the extent to which they want access to your personal data.

I certainly have no plans to move away from Flickr, I think it's a great platform.