Amid breach talk, some Yahoo users finding it hard to exit

LONDON -- As Yahoo’s embattled email service suffers through a slew of bad news, some users are finding it hard to leave.

The company says it disabled its automatic email forwarding system at the beginning of the month, leaving some who want to quit over hacking or surveillance concerns struggling to switch to rival services. Users like Jason Danner of Auckland, New Zealand, say the timing is “extremely suspicious.”

In September Yahoo revealed that hackers had stolen the personal information of half a billion people. More recent revelations concern allegations that Yahoo help U.S. intelligence spy on its users.

The company declined comment Monday. Yahoo’s Help Center site says that the company temporarily disabled automatic email forwarding to new addresses “while we work to improve it.”