Yahoo is facing a class action privacy lawsuit. Two non-Yahoo users are claiming by scanning emails that they sent to people with Yahoo addresses, Yahoo was invading their privacy. Yahoo scans all of its users emails in order to serve targeted ads. As non-users the plaintiffs point out that they never agreed to Yahoo's terms of service. The news comes a week after Google failed to convince a judge from dropping charges against the company of breaking privacy laws. Google claimed scanning emails to serve ads is part of the business model, and that only machines actually read the emails. …

Following in Yahoo's steps, Microsoft is recycling inactive email accounts for its Outlook, Hotmail and Live services. Microsoft has told users that they must login a minimum of every 270 days to keep their Microsoft accounts active. After 360 days of inactivity, that user name becomes available to a newcomer again. Yahoo has had problems with its new email recycling program. Some users of recycled email accounts have been able to access the private data of former owners.

Apple CEO Tim Cook sent out an email today to commemorate the memory of Steve Jobs, who died a year ago tomorrow. "I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world," he wrote in the email. "Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place."

Ladar Levison, the owner of the email encryption service Lavabit tried to use very small font to keep the government from reading encrypted emails that his company sent, according to documents filed with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia which were unsealed on Wednesday. The documents revealed that Levison tried to fight the government's request for information on one of his users, likely Edward Snowden, as well as a request for an encryption key that would let agents read the communications of all its users. In response, he sent five, 2,560 character SSL encryption keys, …

It takes 59 percent of companies more than eight hours to respond to customer email inquiries, according to new metrics from KANA Software, but that doesn't stop them from using email to complain. According to another KANA report, 42 percent of marketers said that email is the most common channel for customers to send criticisms. Thirty-six percent said the phone is the most common.

Adobe was hacked this week exposing the IDs, passwords and credit card information of almost 3 million customers. Through email, the company is encouraging victims to reset their passwords as a precaution. Customers who were affected will receive email notifications instructing them to how change their Adobe passwords.

It takes companies an average of 8 hours to respond to a customer service request via email, according to new research from KANA Software. The company surveyed Call Centre Association members and found that 59 per cent of companies take more than 8 hours to respond to these requests over email. Social media is much quicker. Social analytics company Simply Measured found that the average response time on Twitter is only about 5.1 hours, with 10 percent of companies answering within an hour.

The government shutdown has put hundreds of thousands of people on forced furlough and it turns out that these US federal employees are legally required to shut off their work phones. If they use their phones to check work email, they can be fired and could face civil or criminal penalties. The Committee on House Administration recommend to these workers that they turn their BlackBerrys off as long as the federal government is closed. Other agencies collected work phones. The reason dates back to 1884 in a statue called the Antideficiency Act. The law prohibits the government from agreeing to …

Ladar Levison, founder of secure email provider Lavabit, has opened up about why he shut down his email encryption service abruptly over the summer. In August, Levison shut down the service only revealing that government pressure had led to the closure. He finally gave more color this this in a Facebook post this week. "During an investigation into several Lavabit user accounts, the federal government demanded both unfettered access to all user communications and a copy of the Lavabit encryption keys used to secure web, instant message and email traffic," she said.

Half of email marketing subscribers only opened emails on a mobile device, while 23 percent of consumers only opened emails on a desktop, and another 23 percent of consumers only open Webmail, according to Experian Marketing Services' new report Quarterly Email Benchmark Study Q2 2013. Three percent of email subscribers opened emails on all of these three platforms, with at least one opening the email on a mobile device.