How come some people's Y!A activity is private but their Yahoo avatars can still be seen on Y!A?

[Perception]

What do they do to keep their Y!A activity private? But their avatars are still visible.

[Rev]

You can't hide your avatar. You could hide your Pulse profile, which will keep you from having a custom avatar, but that is not necessary as there are settings to keep your information private without hiding your Pulse.

You can hide your Q&A from being visible on your profile from everybody BUT your Contacts. You can't hide your questions from being visible when people are searching elsewhere however.

First and most important step to keep your Q&A private...(from the desktop version) go to My Activities>Edit My Preferences>Privacy & Communications. Under "Sharing and network:" you will see "Share my Q&A with:". Select "My Contacts Only" and click Submit at the bottom of the page.

If you have any Contacts they will be able to see your Q&A, so if you are concerned about privacy I suggest you don't allow them. After you set to My Contacts Only simply don't add users as Contacts (become their fan).

Then for more privacy you need to check your Pulse settings.

From Answers go to My Activity>View Pulse>Settings>Manage updates. Make sure "Share my updates" is not checked. Save at the bottom of the page. This keeps your Q&A from being visible on Pulse and other Yahoo! sites.

Also on Pulse go to Manage my info (under Profile Information). There you can manage what profile information you care to share if somebody views your Pulse profile from your Yahoo! Answers profile. You really don't have to share any personal information at all if you don't want to.

You can also manage whether you want Twitter or Facebook linked to your Yahoo! account by going to Settings>Manage my linked accounts.