My regular xobx(not 360) is blinking red. What do i do?

Yahoo 360 q.............?

• I havn't created a 360 beta account yet but to the right of my avatar on my y/a profile page, there is a link with blues words that says "my 360 page" (which is hidden from the public). When I click on it, there is just a plain profile page of me and on this screen at the top it says "yahoo member directory". Below that is says: yahoo id: ect... Real Name: Nick Name: Location: Age: Etc... My questions are these: 1. Why can't I hide my yahoo id... There is no way on the profile page to view how others view it (which doesn't matter now b/c my 360 link is put as private) but if it weren't people would automatically know my email address b/c of my yahoo id being displayed which I can't change. 2. If I don't set my 360 page (which is a profile page right now, not 360 beta) to private, when others click on it won't they be able to view my yahoo id and then they will know my email address? 3. On another email account I have with yahoo, I noticed that after I created a 360 beta page that it replaced that profile page but is there a way for people to still find the profile page by searching for my name, if so I don't want just anyone who searches my name to automatically know my email address from my yahoo id. I tried searching my own name and one profile showed up from a long time ago with my email address (it wasn't a 360 beta page, just a reg. profile page) the email address isn't valid any more but even if I hadn't of chosen at the time I had that email account to let my email address be viewed as public, my yahoo id would still show which would give away my email address b/c you can't change the way it displays like you can on y/a, it automatically puts the first part of your email address as your yahoo id. 3. I have already chosen for my email address to not be displayed on my profile page (not the one that's in answers that tells a little about yourself with contact info to the right but the one that appears after clicking on "my 360" before you have created a beta account) but my yahoo id is still on there. When you get a 360 beta account, it seems you have more privacy options but I want to know if the other profile page will still appear and if others can find my yahoo email id by doing a search in the member directory. PS I have looked up other people's reg profile pages (outside of y/a) and even if they chose for their email address to not be shown, it still showed their email id (the first part of your email address minus the "@yahoo.com" I just want to know all of this for security reasons because I don't want just anyone to have access to my email address. When you switch to 360 beta where you have more privacy options, does it cancel out that plain "member's directory" profile page where your yahoo id is viewed publicly??? Thanks for your time!

• Answer:

  UPDATED: This is what you should do, then let it go, since you are extremely concerned about your privacy. First, stop using this main Yahoo ID for anything other than e-mail and instant messaging. I say this for reasons beyond privacy concerns. Don't e-mail or IM people from that account beyond who you know personally. Now, pretend that you are someone different than who you are normally or pretend that you are under a witness protection program. Don't log into any Yahoo services, but go to http://mail.yahoo.com . Click the "Sign Up" link on the lower right side of that page. Create a new Yahoo account (you can have as many as you like... they are free). Provide fake, yet valid information when setting up this new account. When that account has been created, then you can use all the Yahoo services that you would like with that account and have minimal worries about privacy. Why? Because all the information is fake anyway. So, then go ahead and activate the 360 & Y/A services for the new account. Now, if you STILL don't want people to have easy access to your e-mail through this new account, then you can create alias Yahoo IDs for the account which you can use for anything but e-mail. (You can create one extra e-mail address for the account that counts as an alias, but it's not necessary in this case). Any aliases created under the account can be used for Yahoo! 360 (or other services) instead of the main Yahoo ID (which is the ID used for the e-mail address). Adjustments to use the alias can be made in the "Settings" page of the Y!360 space. As for the Yahoo! Answers profile, if you don't want the main Yahoo ID to be known, you can hide the Yahoo! 360 link and not use the IM option. Then, put address to the 360 space (which can use an alias ID, if you've set that up in 360) in the "About Me" section of the Y/A profile. The Members Profile is not canceled out. It still exists, it's just that you have an additional profile called Y!360. BOTTOM LINE: You are the first defense in protecting your privacy. If you don't give people true information, then you have a minimal problem from the beginning. If you want to use the fake Yahoo! account with people you know as well, then let them know that you don't want your "true" personal information distributed and that you want to be called by your nickname publicly. Of course, using your fake identity with people you know personally is a risk, as slip-ups can happen.