Wednesday, April 30, 2014
Protecting Students with Google Apps for Education
Today more than 30 million students, teachers and administrators globally rely on Google Apps for Education. Earning and keeping their trust drives our business forward. We know that trust is earned through protecting their privacy and providing the best security measures.

This is why, from day one, we turned off ads by default in Apps for Education services. Last year, we removed ads from Google Search for signed-in K-12 users altogether. So, if you’re a student logging in to your Apps for Education account at school or at home, when you navigate to Google.com, you will not see ads.

Of course, good privacy requires strong security. We have more than 400 full-time engineers — the world’s foremost experts in security — working to protect your information. We always use an encrypted HTTPS connection when you check or send email in Gmail, which means no one can listen in on your messages as they go back and forth between your laptop, phone or tablet and Gmail’s servers — even if you’re using public WiFi.

Today, we’re taking additional steps to enhance the educational experience for Apps for Education customers:

We’ve permanently removed the “enable/disable” toggle for ads in the Apps for Education Administrator console. This means ads in Apps for Education services are turned off and administrators no longer have the option or ability to turn ads in these services on.
We’ve permanently removed all ads scanning in Gmail for Apps for Education, which means Google cannot collect or use student data in Apps for Education services for advertising purposes.

Users who have chosen to show AdSense ads on their Google Sites will still have the ability to display those existing ads on their websites. However, it will no longer be possible to edit or add new AdSense ads to existing sites or to new pages.

We’re also making similar changes for all our Google Apps customers, including Business, Government and for legacy users of the free version, and we’ll provide an update when the rollout is complete.

On Thursday, May 1 at 9:00 am PT, we’ll be hosting a Hangout on Air on our Google for Education G+ page with myself; Jonathan Rochelle, Director of Product Management for Docs and Drive and Hank Thiele, Chief Technology Officer for District 207 in Park Ridge, IL who uses Google Apps. We’ll be discussing these changes and answering your questions. We look forward to hearing from you.

For more information about student privacy in Google Apps for Education, please visit our website.

Reposted from Google Enterprise Blog:
http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2014/04/protecting-students-with-google-apps.html

Posted by Bram Bout, Director, Google for Education

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And, you want to depend upon “the cloud”?

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Dear reinkefj,

We are very sorry to announce that Springpad will be shutting down on June 25th. At that point, Springpad.com will no longer be available and all online and sync features of the mobile apps will stop working. Read more about this announcement

It’s our top priority to help you during this transition. We have created multiple ways for you to take next steps with your Springpad data including a full Evernote migration option, a viewable html data backup and an importable file for other services to use. Please visit https://springpad.com/savemystuff before June 25th to export your data.

Thank you to our loyal users – We hope that you have enjoyed using Springpad as much as we enjoyed building it for you!

Export Your Data Now

We understand that this transition may be difficult for many of you and we will try to help as much as possible. If you have questions or need help, please visit the Springpad Shutdown FAQ

Sincerely,
The Springpad Team

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Springpad, the awesome personal assistant for everything in your life, is sadly shutting down. However, you can import all your saved items into Pocket so you don’t lose them.

The fine folks have Pocket built this tool specifically for Springpad users, so it’s very easy: just head to Springpad’s export tool, export your data, and then import it into Pocket here. It’ll even preserve all your tags. Update: you can also import your Springpad items into Evernote using Springpad’s export tool as described here.

Springpad is shutting down on June 25th, so be sure to import your info before then! Hit the link to read more.

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http://www.cnet.com/news/ebay-hacked-requests-all-users-change-passwords/?tag=nl.e404&s_cid=e404&ttag=e404&ftag=CAD1acfa04

eBay hacked, requests all users change passwords
eBay confirms users’ passwords were compromised but says there’s no evidence any financial information was accessed.

by Don Reisinger  @donreisinger May 21, 2014 5:30 AM PDT

*** begin quote ***

eBay’s morning just went from bad to worse. The e-commerce site confirmed Wednesday that its corporate network was hacked and a database with users’ passwords was compromised. While eBay says there is no evidence that users’ financial information was accessed in the hack, the company is telling all users to change their passwords.

*** end quote ***

Sigh!

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Another app bites the dust.

Dear LifeLock Wallet User,

You have received this email because you have previously downloaded the LifeLock Wallet app or its predecessor, Lemon Wallet.

We are writing to let you know that we have determined the app is not fully compliant with payment card industry (PCI) security standards, and we are taking immediate steps to correct this and ensure the ongoing safety of your personal information.

It’s important for you to know that we have no reason to believe your personal information, including credit card numbers and other data, has been compromised as a result of the PCI compliance issue.

As we move forward to bring the app into the highest levels of PCI compliance, we are deleting your stored personal data from our LifeLock servers. This does not affect your ability to use your credit cards or other information you have uploaded to LifeLock Wallet.

We’re working to return a fully PCI compliant LifeLock Wallet to you soon. Until then, we are removing the app from all app stores, including the Apple App Store, Google Play and the Amazon App Store.

We know that being without this application for a while is asking a lot of you. We apologize for the inconvenience. At the same time, we want you to know that we are taking all of these steps because we take your security and privacy very seriously.

When LifeLock Wallet is available again, rest assured that you can download it, provide your personal information and use it again with confidence—knowing that it’s backed by an industry leader that is committed to doing the right thing.

For more information, please visit http://www.LifeLock.com/mobile.

Sincerely,
The LifeLock Wallet team

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How dumb is Microsoft?

It’s a cheap and easy way to get people to join.

Argh!

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http://stet.editorially.com/articles/goodbye/

FEBRUARY 12, 2014 EDITORIALLY
Goodbye

Editorially
Editorially makes collaborative writing easy.

Today brings some sad news: Editorially is closing its doors. The application will remain available until May 30, at which point the site will go offline. We encourage all users to export their data.
We’re proud of the team and tool that we built together and incredibly thankful that so many of you were willing to give it a try. And we continue to believe that evolving the way we collaborate as writers and editors is important work. But Editorially has failed to attract enough users to be sustainable, and we cannot honestly say we have reason to expect that to change.
We wish that were not the case — we’ve spent much of the past two years working on the hypothesis that the reverse was true — but today we must be honest with ourselves, and with you: this isn’t going to work.
We know many of you have spent time and energy making Editorially a tool you use every day, even going so far as to evangelize it to your friends and colleagues. For that: thank you. We’re sincerely sorry to have let you down.

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[JR: Bottom line — you can NOT depend on the cloud.]

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Hi, 

To make your Evernote experience faster and more reliable, we will be upgrading the servers that house your Evernote account between 2pm and 5pm PT on Tuesday, April 29th. We expect this process to take about 30 minutes. You may not be able to use some Evernote features during this time.

In particular, you might not be able to sync, use Evernote Web or the Web Clipper, or access some of your notes on mobile devices. The desktop versions of Evernote should continue to function without syncing. If you need to use Evernote during this period, we recommend that you sync your notes prior to 2pm. Premium users may consider downloading important notebooks to their phones or tablets. 

As always, you can check the status of the Evernote servers and read about planned maintenance at http://status.evernote.com. 

The Evernote Team

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Interesting time to schedule an upgrade.

Most IT folks love Sunday night at 2AM work.

TO do it during prime time is … … 

… … arrogant and disruptive to the Customer?

But that’s what you get when you put your fate in the hands of another.

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Hi, 

To make your Evernote experience faster and more reliable, we will be upgrading the servers that house your Evernote account between 2pm and 5pm PT on Tuesday, April 29th. We expect this process to take about 30 minutes. You may not be able to use some Evernote features during this time.

In particular, you might not be able to sync, use Evernote Web or the Web Clipper, or access some of your notes on mobile devices. The desktop versions of Evernote should continue to function without syncing. If you need to use Evernote during this period, we recommend that you sync your notes prior to 2pm. Premium users may consider downloading important notebooks to their phones or tablets. 

As always, you can check the status of the Evernote servers and read about planned maintenance at http://status.evernote.com. 

The Evernote Team

Hello,

Earlier today you may have received an email informing you that your Google Apps account for the domain reinke.cc has been Closed due to inactivity and will be Terminated on 5-19-2014. This email was incorrectly sent to you because of an inconsistency in our records. The problem was strictly on our end, and none of the data in your account were lost or affected by the error.

We have confirmed that you have logged into your account. Your account has not been Closed and will remain active. No further action is required on your part. You may continue to use your Google Apps account normally.

We sincerely apologize for any confusion this may have caused.

Sincerely,
The Google Apps Team

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… with unknown impact on me?

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Dear Kindle Customer,

As a past user of personal documents on Kindle devices or reading apps, we are pleased to let you know about some improvements we’ve made to how personal documents work.

Personal documents are now in Amazon Cloud Drive: Starting today, all personal documents that you have archived in your Kindle Library will be available to access, delete, organize, and share from your Amazon Cloud Drive. You can see these documents in a new “My Send-to-Kindle Docs” folder alongside all of your saved content such as photos and personal videos.

There is no action required on your part. Your personal documents features will continue to work just as they have in the past. And as always, you can use Manage Your Kindle to see a list of your documents, re-deliver them to Kindle devices and free reading apps, delete them, or turn off auto-saving of documents to the cloud. Documents will be delivered just as they have in the past and you will continue to have 5 GB of free cloud storage for your personal documents. Just “Send Once, Read Everywhere.”

Documents stored in their native format: Also starting today, new documents that you save to the cloud with Send to Kindle will be stored in their native format (e.g. MS Word, TXT) so you can access them anywhere from Amazon Cloud Drive.

Please note: Your usage of Amazon Cloud Drive is subject to the Amazon Cloud Drive Terms of Use.

Sincerely,
The Docs Team

To learn more about sending documents, news, blogs, and other web articles to your Kindle, please visit amazon.com/sendtokindle

To learn more about Amazon Cloud Drive features and apps, please visit amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore

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Hi,

We are writing to you to notify you that we will be shutting down the
Ubuntu One file services, effective 1 June 2014. This email gives
information about the closure and what you should expect during the
shutdown process.

As of today, it will no longer be possible to purchase storage or music
from the Ubuntu One store. The Ubuntu One file services apps in the Ubuntu,
Google, and Apple stores will be updated appropriately.

As always, your content belongs to you. You can simply download your files
onto your PC or an external hard drive. While the service will stop as of
1 June, you will have an additional two months (until 31 July 2014) to
collect all of your content. After that date, all remaining content will
be deleted.

If you have an active annual subscription, the unused portion of your fees
will be refunded. The refund amount will be calculated from today’s
announcement.

We know you have come to rely on Ubuntu One, and we apologise for the
inconvenience this closure may cause. We’ve always been inspired by the
support, feedback and enthusiasm of our users and want to thank you for
the support you’ve shown for Ubuntu One. We hope that you’ll continue to
support us as together we bring a revolutionary experience to new devices.

The Ubuntu One team

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Can’t depend on any cloud service?

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http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/use-google-drive-capture-great-ideas-never-lose/

How To Use Google Drive To Capture Your Great Ideas & Never Lose Them
By Danny Stieben on 27th March, 2014 | The Internet

*** begin quote ***

Google Drive already ties all your favorite Google services together and adds a whopping 15GB of free storage. With all this right at your fingertips, you can’t help but feel like you need to make good use out of it all. Why not start by using Google Drive to make your ideas stick and make them more effective?
Move over Evernote — here’s how you can use Google Drive to keep and grow your ideas.

*** end quote ***

It’s almost a “translation” of hard drive cost into inet access cost.

Obviously, no access to the inet, you need stuff locally.

But with cheap MIFI and easily tethered phones, it’s making Google Drive and other cloud storage meaningful.

imho!

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http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-docs-adds-ons-students-5-will-help-write-paper/

Google Docs Adds-Ons For Students: These 5 Will Help You Write A Paper
By Dann Albright on 27th March, 2014 | The Internet 

*** begin quote ***

Word-processing for students has long been the domain of Microsoft Word. The recent release of add-ons is making Google Docs an appealing free option. The five add-ons we are about to meet have the potential to become quick favorites for people working on research papers, essays, and collaborative projects. But, are they good enough to make Google Docs the go-to option?

*** end quote ***

Good enough for me.

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Hi FJohn,

At LinkedIn, our fundamental philosophy is “members first.” We believe it’s essential for you to always feel informed and empowered with respect to your information on LinkedIn. This email is all about your privacy and security, and the tools we offer to protect them — it’s worth the read.

We wanted to let you know that we’re making some changes to our Privacy Policy and User Agreement, effective March 26, 2014. As members of the LinkedIn family, LinkedIn Pulse and SlideShare will now be adopting our Terms of Service. This integration will allow us to continue to deliver the most relevant personalized professional content to help you be great at what you do across all three platforms. You can read our blog post explaining the changes and highlighting key points. This is also a good time to review your Privacy Settings and see what your options are in terms of controlling how your information is shared.

While we work hard behind the scenes to protect you and your data, we’re also committed to providing you with tools to manage your privacy and security. Here are three tools to take a look at:

1. Choose how your information is shared
We have additional privacy settings you can turn on or off, depending on what you want to share, display, or receive. Here are some of the options you’ll find in your settings:
Turn on/off activity broadcasts
Select who can see your activity feed
Select what people see when you’ve viewed their profile
Select who can see your connections
Change your profile photo and visibility
Block members for added privacy

2. Protect your account with two-step verification
Opting into two-step verification can greatly reduce identity theft and unauthorized access. Learn how to turn it on with this SlideShare presentation. If you run into any problems, see our troubleshooting tips.

3. Turn on secure browsing (HTTPS)
A good indicator of a protected website connection is the https:// you might see in your browser address bar. While we automatically secure a connection for pages with sensitive information (such as credit card info), you can also turn this on when viewing all pages across LinkedIn — learn how. We’re working on making this a default across LinkedIn.

Looking for more tips on privacy and security? Visit our Safety Center for more info on using LinkedIn smartly and securely.

Thanks for being a member!
The LinkedIn Team

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Hi Fjohn,

We want to let you know about some upcoming updates to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. These updates will go into effect on March 24, 2014.

You can find more details on our blog, but here’s a quick overview:

We’re adding an arbitration section to our updated Terms of Service. Arbitration is a quick and efficient way to resolve disputes, and it provides an alternative to things like state or federal courts where the process could take months or even years. If you don’t want to agree to arbitration, you can easily opt out via an online form, within 30-days of these Terms becoming effective. This form, and other details, are available on our blog.
We’ve added a section to our Privacy Policy that discusses our recently launched Government Data Request Principles. We’ve also made clarifications to better explain how our services will use your information. For example, we explain that when you give us access to your contacts, we’ll store them so that you – and only you – can do things like share your stuff easily, no matter what device you’re using.
We’ve also updated our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy to better explain and reflect our growing list of features for Dropbox for Business customers.
While we’ve simplified much of the language, our commitment to keeping your stuff safe and secure hasn’t changed. We don’t sell your personal information to third parties. We don’t serve ads based on the stuff you store in our services. As always, your stuff is yours.

If you have any questions about these updates, you can read more on our blog or email us at tos-questions@dropbox.com.

Thanks for using Dropbox!

– The Dropbox Team

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Seems reasonable?

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Can’t depend on anyone for the security of your information!

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Goodbye Today brings some sad news: Editorially is closing its doors. The application will remain available until May 30, at which point the site will go offline. We encourage all users to export their data. We’re proud of the team and tool that we built together and incredibly thankful that so many of you were willing to give it a try. And we continue to believe that evolving the way we collaborate as writers and editors is important work. But Editorially has failed to attract enough users to be sustainable, and we cannot honestly say we have reason to expect that to change. We wish that were not the case — we’ve spent much of the past two years working on the hypothesis that the reverse was true — but today we must be honest with ourselves, and with you: this isn’t going to work. We know many of you have spent time and energy making Editorially a tool you use every day, even going so far as to evangelize it to your friends and colleagues. For that: thank you. We’re sincerely sorry to have let you down.

You can’t depend upon the cloud. Even if you pay for it.

Argh!

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Argh!

Yahoo has really fallen on hard times!

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http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,28858275

Verizon Fiber Optics Forum – Dslrep… 
TODAY

Verizon Discontinuing Personal Web Space

Verizon Fiber Optics forum – dslreports.com community 3h // keep unread // hide // preview
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Anyone else get the email today? No great loss :p —————— IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR PERSONAL WEB SPACE SERVICE Dear Valued Verizon Customer, At Verizon, we strive to keep you informed of changes that may impact your Verizon online experience. That’s why we wanted to notify you that as of March 15, 2014, the Site Builder tool and the online Personal Web Space pages will be decommissioned. – You will continue to be able to view any web pages you created until September 30, 2014, but will not be able to create new pages, update or make any changes to existing pages after March 15, 2014 – If you currently pay for additional Web Space, this charge will be automatically removed from your account after March 15, 2014 when your online Personal Web Space service is decommissioned – Customers who purchased VerizonYourDomain to establish a personal website/domain are not impacted by this change – If you have previously used the Site Builder tool to create your own web page(s) you may un-publish or delete your content by taking the following steps: – Log into your account at http://verizon.com/myverizon – Navigate to Accounts and Services/My Services/Internet Click – Security & Free Tools/Manage Click – Personal Web Space Click – Actions/Edit My Website Click – Advanced Options icon in the bottom right corner of the screen Under Site Options Select Unpublish/Delete/Copy Site or Download Site Please Note: All Web Space pages will be permanently deleted as of September 30, 2014. While you cannot directly transfer your website to another provider or use any stock images from Site Builder , you may be able to download the images that you originally uploaded by clicking on the “Download Site” link within the Advanced Options setting. If you are looking for an alternative provider to host your domain and website, you may contact Web.com directly at 855-852-5186 for information on their services and pricing. Thank you for your continued use of Verizon services. We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to serve you. Sincerely, Your Verizon Team

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And why do you believe the ISPs?

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https://accounts.proflowers.com/ManageReminders.aspx

Their website lost all my reminders. Emailed in; got a non-responsive auto response. Did these guys study the Obamacare website? I really want websites, services, and products that off-load details. Not lose my stuff for me. I can do that on my own. 

Argh!

Guess one needs a paper backup of everything.

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Checking out the competition:

http://www.1800flowers.com

http://www.ftd.com

http://www.teleflora.com

http://www.myflorist.com

http://www.thepottingshedflorist.com/

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ProFlowers lost my reminders!

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On Thu, Nov 28, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Corporate Customer Care <corporate@customercare.providecommerce.com> wrote:
Dear Ferdinand,

Thank you for contacting Proflowers regarding your Reminders. Although we are always here to assist you, we have a helpful feature on our web site that allows you to make these kinds of changes or look ups to your account. Our Account Management feature provides you the security and convenience to make these types of changes in the future.

If you visit our online account management feature, you can view and maintain:

-Your Profile (includes changing your e-mail address)
-Payment Options (includes changing your billing address or deleting credit card information)
-Address Book (includes entering new addresses or editing existing addresses)
-Your Orders (includes tracking and modifying orders, when possible)
-Reminder Service (includes editing or adding event reminders)
-Preferences (includes catalog requests and signing up for e-mail savings)

To access your account, simply click on the link titled “Track Your Order” at the top of our home page and log in with a password.

Your satisfaction is our foremost objective, and it is only through your feedback that we learn whether or not we are achieving our goal, so please do not hesitate to contact us with any additional comments or concerns you may have. To reach us, we are available 24 hours a day 7 days a week at 888.336.1396.

Your survey comments state,”my reminders are gone! “

We appreciate your business and truly thank you for being our customer.
Sincerely,

CCSS Blanca S

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I love non-helpful stock emails. Autoresponder! 

Argh!

And, my “reminders” appear to have gone to data heaven!!!

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Hi there,

I wanted to get in touch to apologize for the awful experience we’ve caused many of you on your weekend. Buffer was hacked around 1 hour ago, and many of you may have experienced spam posts sent from you via Buffer. I can only understand how angry and disappointed you must be right now.

Not everyone who has signed up for Buffer has been affected, but you may want to check on your accounts. We’re working hard to fix this problem right now and we’re expecting to have everything back to normal shortly.

We’re posting continual updates on the Buffer Facebook page and the Buffer Twitter page to keep you in the loop on everything.

The best steps for you to take right now and important information for you:

Remove any postings from your Facebook page or Twitter page that look like spam
Keep an eye on Buffer’s Twitter page and Facebook page
Your Buffer passwords are not affected
No billing or payment information was affected or exposed
All Facebook posts sent via Buffer have been temporarily hidden and will reappear once we’ve resolved this situation
I am incredibly sorry this has happened and affected you and your company. We’re working around the clock right now to get this resolved and we’ll continue to post updates on Facebook and Twitter.

If you have any questions at all, please respond to this email. Understandably, a lot of people have emailed us, so we might take a short while to get back to everyone, but we will respond to every single email.

– Joel and the Buffer team

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Too bad. This is a very useful tool for posting on Facebook.

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http://www.itworld.com/it-management/379660/how-boxcom-allowed-complete-stranger-delete-all-my-files

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Read this and tell me that the cloud is secure. Or that it should anchor your business model!

“Your” data? Don’t make me laff.

When things like POGOPLUG allow you to host your own cloud, WHY would you trust your data to an unpaid benefactor?

Even if you pay them, it’s no guarantee of permanency.

You have to take responsibility for your own “survival”!

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Thanks for being a loyal Yahoo Mail Plus user!

We wanted to inform you about a few changes to Yahoo Mail and Yahoo Mail Plus.

Mail Plus will continue being ad free
Continue enjoying a clean inbox, without any graphical ads! All Yahoo Mail users will now be offered offline access with POP, mail forwarding, disposable address and extra filters for free.

Your rate won’t change
As a loyal user, you are locked in at your rate of $19.99 per year until you cancel the service. New users will pay $49.99 for Ad Free Mail. If you choose, you can cancel your Mail Plus service anytime at http://wallet.yahoo.com.

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Argh! Now I can struggle with keep it active or drop it.

I am getting a “bargain”!

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Dear Mr. Reinke,

My team and I are happy to assist you by phone at any time.
The privacy of your data is very important to us. To further increase our
security
standards, we have created a new security feature for your telephone
conversations
with our support team: the 1&1 Support PIN.

What is the 1&1 Support PIN?
Beginning now, when calling our support team your authentication will come
from the 1&1 Support PIN. The Support PIN is a unique number known only by
you.
It can be created or updated easily in your 1&1 Control Panel. For security
reasons,
we recommend changing the Support PIN after every authentication.

Log in to your 1&1 Control Panel now to create your personal Support PIN
under
“My Data” > “User Settings”: https://www.1and1.com/login

What should you consider?
You will need your Support PIN only when you are calling us. It is not
necessary
to change your Support PIN after we have called you.

Do you have any questions?
Additional information on the 1&1 Support PIN is available at:
http://help.1and1.com/article/792369

You can also give us a call – my team and I are happy to assist
– 24 hours a day, 7 days a week:
1-866-991-2631 (free of charge)
Or send an e-mail to: aaron-n@1and1.com

We wish you a lot of success as you continue using your 1&1 product!

Sincerely yours,

Aaron Nye
Head of Operations US
1&1 Internet Inc

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I’m not sure it’s needed. I don’t ask for that much support. The last problem I had was years ago.

Now I have yet another pin?

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