Microsoft Search Advertisers Get Personal

Alascom writes "According to this AP report, Microsoft is raising privacy concerns by allowing search advertisers to use personal information. Yusuf Mehdi, a corporate vice president with the MSN unit, said Microsoft has gathered this personal information by tracking users who have logged into its Hotmail e-mail program or other Microsoft Web sites in order to allow advertisers to target their ads to a specific audience."

Comments

Re:You expected privacy?

[Anonymous Coward]

Nothing is ever free from a corporation--they've got people studying consumers to find out how to make a buck off of them. That's no conspiracy theory--it's just corporate life. That's why I work at an .EDU.

Yes, I've heard that American Universities are large charitable institutions with no interest in making money from their students.

Re:Ah Slashdot....

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

It's a keyword matching system, that's it, that's all. Yes, they do targetted marketing [based on the content of your email]...

So, in other words, they "troll" through your email...

And, keep in mind, what a For Profit Corporation does today, and why they tell you they do it, may change over time as they realize that as a publically traded company, what counts is the finantials.