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Microsoft Search Advertisers Get Personal

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the blurring-the-lines dept.

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."

3 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. What the EULA says by WebHostingGuy · · Score: 2, Informative

    MSN Hotmail

    Hotmail collects information during the registration process, including first and last name, country, region or state, Zip or post code, time zone, gender, birth date and occupation. You may update your registration information at any time from within your Hotmail account by clicking the "Options" button on the navigation bar, and then clicking on the "Personal" icon.

    When you create a Hotmail account, you will also simultaneously create a .NET Passport, which you will use for signing in to your Hotmail account. If you cancel this .NET Passport account, you will automatically cancel your Hotmail account. For more information about .NET Passport, visit http://www.passport.net and read the .NET Passport Privacy Statement.

    Your registration information is used to operate the site, for demographic statistics, and to display appropriate individualized advertisements. New users will receive a Hotmail welcome letter explaining the features provided by the service. Hotmail may also send periodic member letters, from which you may not unsubscribe without closing your account, to announce important service changes, new features, technical issue updates and information about other products and services.

    Hotmail is concerned about controlling unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "spam." Hotmail will not sell, lease or rent its member lists to any third parties. While Microsoft continues to actively review and implement new technology, such as expanded filtering features, there is no currently available technology that will totally prevent the sending and receiving of unsolicited e-mail. Using tools such as the Inbox Protector and being cautious about the sharing of your e-mail address while online will help reduce the amount of unsolicited e-mail you receive. For more information on how to best use Hotmail's tools, please contact abuse@hotmail.com.

    http://privacy1.msn.com/fullnotice.armx#SUPPLEME NT ARY

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  2. Re:Ah Slashdot.... by tajmorton · · Score: 2, Informative
    I hate to feed the trolls, but...
    How is this any different than Google trolling through your email?
    Google isn't reading your mail: http://gmail.google.com/gmail/help/privacy.html
    • We will never rent, sell or share information that personally identifies you for marketing purposes without your express permission.
    • We serve highly relevant ads and other information as part of the service using our unique content-targeting technology. No human reads your email to target ads or related information to you without your consent.

    And, in terms of showing the ads, and parsing through your mail there...how is that different than a spam filter? Does your ISP have a privacy policy that says they won't read your email? I can't even find the privacy policy of my ISP!

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    Tell the truth and you won't have so much to remember.
  3. Hotmail=Junkmail by Etrigan66 · · Score: 2, Informative

    They can look thru my hotmail account all they like. It only ever gets used when I need to provide a valid email address to a website I'm visiting. This way, my home email doesn't get flooded with the porn ads/medications ads that seem to find their way to me after a visit amazon, hahaha.