In conversation with Yahoo’s editor-in-chief Ninja Srinivasan

Ninja: Yahoo is involved in that. There are places like privacy where I feel like we have a really strong track record well over 10 years now. Publicly posting our privacy policy and talking about data use and how this works and why it is an integral part of our business model and how it helps us to make money and build the products and services that we put out there for free. But, its only been recently that this is been more a matter of mainstream. you know something you are going to pick and read about in your paper. These are details that I feel like we have been sweating for years and years because we are in the thick of it. And it is up to us to be sort of projecting out what are the cheess moves fall two or three moves out. But today it is becoming more of a public and I think mainstream conversation not just with regulators and legislators, but also with the media and with consumers and readers. And I think you can say this about all of these issues whether it is accessibility or child safety and various aspects of corporate responsibility.

Kamla: Privacy always brings up one country, China. You have had some issues dealing with China?

Ninja: China does pose some very, very interesting and challenging issues for our industry, which is always been founded on freedom of expression. One of the core values since Yahoo’s inception was to promote the free exchange of ideas and information. In more oppressive regimes that can certainly be a really tough challenge or really tough conflict that has not really dire human consequences. I think that is soemthing we are learning a lot about. I feel like that is something we have been putting a lot of focus and attention on in terms of investing in helping to shape, define and demonstrate best practices for ourselves but for so many companies and even states, right? This is not something that one individual or one entity can may be solve on their own but it is something that we can be a part of shaping, how can we have a dialogue with our own Government, with our own legislators and regulators to be having the kinds of conversations that are going to help raise the bar for everybody. Raise quality for life for everybody, raise freedom of expression and promote these values around the world.

Kamla: How do you then also deal with controversial topics because the world map is changing so rapidly? Since Yahoo started, just before Yahoo started with the fall of the Berlin wall since then we have had a constant changing of the map and that throws a lot of age old questions, ethnic conflicts that were buried in the 19th and 20th century are resurfacing again. Pick any country, they have access to the internet and -as long as they can write, they can get their voices heard.