Hello Anonymous,

Further to my previous email.

Here is probably a better explanation of how Yandex works.

YANDEX collects:

- anonymous device ID (e.g. random number associated with the device)
- Zen usage data (sources selected during onboarding process, intentional feedback ‘thumbs up’ / ‘thumbs down’ / ‘block this source’, clicks on specific cards, number of cards viewed by user).
- Information about how fast the feed is being scrolled, and whether user stopped on some cards and clicked or continued scrolling is also being used to personalized the feed
- User’s country to make sure that we’re showing appropriate content model

YANDEX does not collect personal data (e-mails, phone numbers, etc.) and none of the information gathered could be used to identify the specific person using Zen.

All the information used for Ad targeting is being collected by respective Ad network SDKs (Facebook and Google AdMob for EU). Yandex does not have access to Ad targeting data.

YANDEX is a public company listed on NASDAQ, and YANDEX does comply with all the international privacy laws.
YANDEX is also one of the few European companies who joined CVE - US-based Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures community to ensure transparency in our methods of protection against security threats: http://www.silicon.co.uk/security/yandex-is-the-first-russian-tech-firm-to-join-the-cve-200060

Datacentre of YANDEX is located in Finland and this is where the anonymous data from EU users are being processed.

To sum it up - YANDEX collects only the anonymous information required to personalize content feed. All the information is collected within the feed itself, and none of the other device data is being accessed or sent to YANDEX servers.

Kind Regards

Wileyfox Customer Support