Slashdot Mirror
MS Passport Privacy Policy Revised
nilstar writes: "Cnet has a story here about how Microsoft will revamp its "draconian" privacy policy. Better yet.... how about we get a warning on the bottom of the IE6 window saying that this site's privacy policy is unnacceptable every time someone logs on to a passport site." Looks like it has already been changed.
Update 10AM EST by J :
Make sure to check out the
Wired story
too. Jason Catlett of Junkbusters nails it: "if Microsoft doesn't know what's in its own terms of service regarding personal information, then what hope do its customers have for the privacy of their own information?"
Actually...doesn't TRUSTe only guarantee that a company is doing exactly what they SAY they're doing? So even if a certain company is "TRUSTe certified" it only means that they're screwing you over in exactly the way that they say they are (in legalese, of course, which is intentionally so mind-bogglingly convoluted that only laywers generally understand it - a sufficient vocabulary and a knack for substitution helps - but ask the average Joe what they're actually saying, and he won't be able to tell)
Microsoft basically shot themselves in the PR foot and they deserve to get tweaked on this.
It was only two weeks ago that they announced the "Hailstorm" subscription services, centered around Passport, and then had to dodge the obvious question "Why should I trust my data to you guys?". It would have been alot easier if they weren't already claiming IP rights to data flowing through their system.
Speaking of TRUSTe, apparently IE 6 will include a little status bar icon showing if the site has a privacy policy. Not if the policy is at all acceptable or not, just if it is there. Of course all MS sites will show "Thumbs Up OK!", where visiting any normal site will produce "Oh No! Unknown! Scary!"
Not that this really makes any difference, it's just a small example in the psychological warfare involved in making the next generation of hosting services acceptable to the public. (Netscape did a similar thing with SSL and the overly big broken/unbroken key icon in versions 1-3). And when you get things like this instead of a 'Disable JavaScript' toolbar button, it just shows how the users aren't really driving the specs.
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Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Much though we love to hate Microsoft, there was no way that this kind of land grab was what was intended.
I suspect that some lawyer got overzealous when setting up the original legalese, and that MS has now realised what was actually up there.
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My Journal
This really doesn't affect the issue at all. The point is when your data is edited and stored on someone else's computer, you already cede many rights. Fine, for now they're making the terms and conditions a little better - but we still have to face the fact that companies will be able to update such licences (as they inevitably will do), and whilst there will no doubt be screams of complaint if they try to do this retroactively, people /will/ end up having to abandon their usual tools because the policy for use has changed. This is absolutely why you want to /own/ the software (or at least the licence) to use it, so that it continues to work as it always has (c.f. the Tivo article a couple of days ago) that way the worst that can happen is you start to lag behind - you're never going to find things that used to work don't anymore. Unfortunately, for Americans, is seems that the DMCA gives publishers the right to retroactively change how things work, or the licence you have for it, retroactively, whether you 'own' it or not!
That's simple. The lawyers.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
Here it is: bullshit. They just let you use their sticker to say you actually HAVE a privacy policy. It's misleading and (honestly) used by companies to lure people into the whole false sense of security thing. TRUSTe has never actually reviewed privacy policies...
I can't be karma whoring - I've already hit 50!
SIG: HUP
They must have read the article on Slashdot the other day and freaked out. OH SHIT, SLASHDOT'S ON TO US!!! Now if we could only get the same results with their other business practices...
There goes my plan to keep forwarding RIAA trademarks through my Hotmail account until Microsoft started claiming "rights" to them and the RIAA sued Billy boy and friends.
Hmmmm....RIAA vs. Microsoft. Who the hell do you root for?