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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."

22 of 185 comments (clear)

  1. Nothing new by suso · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did you really expect anything less from Hotmail or Microsoft? I mean come on, this is a website that asks you (auto selected) if you want to subscribe to about 50+ different personalized newsletters when you sign up. I don't see how people can expect their privacy to be respected when the service is free.

    1. Re:Nothing new by frankthechicken · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Mostly agree, and if someone describes their individual wants and needs by signing up to the personalized newsletters, then I would guess they would appreciate some more personalized adverts, rather than requests to buy products they have no desire for. And would probably not recognise that they are being targetted in such a way.

      If you absolutely have to have adverts forced down your throat, then I'm sure the general public would prefer those adverts tailored for them.

    2. Re:Nothing new by suso · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I didn't mean anything free, I meant when its free from a company whose motivation is profit. Its not always true, but there is almost always a profit or information motive.

    3. Re:Nothing new by naylor83 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Well, this is basically what Google is already doing, not?

    4. Re:Nothing new by dlZ · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I preper advertising to be tailored if I have to see it. I usually ignore it, but a good example of when it works was my better half wrote me an e-mail about some Hello Kitty stuff (she's a big collector)to my Gmail account. On the side where the ads are were a ton of things related to Hello Kitty, and I was in need of a present. I clicked, found a good deal, and made her very happy.

      --
      rm -rf ./evidence @ punkcomp
  2. Good by tobybuk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Once people get a sniff that Microsoft is playing dirty in the search they have even less incentive to move from google.

    I say bring it on.

    1. Re:Good by ack154 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why would I have any incentive to move from Google anyways? They bring nothing new to the table that I'm interested in.

  3. Welcome to the Future by cybrthng · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And you don't think this happens anywhere else? Read the TOS of Google, Yahoo and many other websites you visit.

  4. Oh no! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hotmail are using personal data to target ads. Microsoft suck!

    If only Google did this sort of thing with GMail. That'd be O.K, because they're Google. Google arn't evil, like those bastards at Microsoft.

  5. This is really scary! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I got some really scary ads that have been keeping me up at night! How do they know I HAVE A SMALL PENIS! OMG this is a travesty. I should have given them a fake zip code and should have lied about my penis size on the questionnaire.

    1. Re:This is really scary! by jacksonj04 · · Score: 4, Funny

      On the other end of the scale, they seem to want me to walk around with an 11" penis, DD breasts and a remortgage on my russian bride.

      --
      How many people can read hex if only you and dead people can read hex?
  6. Personalised isnt a bad thing by scenestar · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The biggest problem with advertising reamins that products advertised are not interresting to me.

    I have yet to find a advert for cheap merch pressing or jobs for young webdesigners. Instead i get bombarded with ads for crazy frog ringtones.

    As long as they dont read my email line by line it's FINE with me

    --
    perpetually dwelling in the -1 pits
  7. People still use Hotmail? by bigtallmofo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I've witnessed a mass-exodus from Hotmail in the last few months. Complaints range from:

    1. Being asked to type in a human-verifier code everytime you send an email
    2. Server Busy errors for hours or even days
    3. Account unavailable due to maintenance issues for hours or even days
    4. Horrible interface
    5. Spotty spam protection from everyone except the copious amount that Hotmail sends you

    I have a Hotmail account that's about 7 years old that I still check from time to time, but I can't imagine using it on a day-to-day basis.

    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
  8. An international view by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I live in Sweden, where this sort of thing is illegal unless you ask your customer for permission first.

    Could this spell problems for Microsoft Sweden, or MS in any other (most likely european) country with the same laws?

    Yes, MS has registered and is using hotmail.se.

  9. Not really personal information... by TheNecromancer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the article:
    Microsoft's paid search platform will provide detailed -- but not personally identifiable -- information, such as gender, age and location, for many people who use its search engine, allowing advertisers to target their ads to a specific audience.

    Notice they aren't releasing any information (like your name, etc.) that would explicitly identify the person to the advertisers.

    I don't see a real problem with privacy here, it just looks like generalized demographic info that is useful to the advertisers.

    --
    Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control! - Neil Peart
    1. Re:Not really personal information... by chialea · · Score: 4, Interesting

      >Notice they aren't releasing any information (like your name, etc.) that would explicitly identify the person to the advertisers.

      There is some rather interesting research on this. Gender, age, and location is enough to identify most people, since, really, there are a limited number of people in each cartesian-type category. Note that this is different from aggregate data, which may be less personally identifiable, depending on how it's done.

      The people at the data privacy lab have gone through and identified people in "non-personally identifiable" information released by several sources. Part of the problem is that you can put these sources of data together with high confidence and both narrow down individual people and gather a LOT of information about them. I'm sure they have some papers up if you're interested:

      http://privacy.cs.cmu.edu/

      Lea

  10. Privacy Schmivacy by Ridgelift · · Score: 4, Insightful

    FTA: "Microsoft's paid search platform will provide detailed -- but not personally identifiable -- information, such as gender, age and location, for many people who use its search engine, allowing advertisers to target their ads to a specific audience."

    Yeah, right. You target an ad to a person, they respond, and now you've got their age, location, etc. Once again the rights of the corporation outweight the rights of the individual.

    --
    Ruby on Rails Screencast
  11. You expected privacy? by catdevnull · · Score: 4, Insightful

    OK, you signed up to use "free" e-mail from the largest corporate player known for it's less-than-ethical tactics and you expected to get something for nothing from Microsoft? Yikes, people. I refused from the get go. My gut said it was a gimmick.

    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. [That and I'm a bit of a masochist].

    --

    I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
    1. Re:You expected privacy? by DenDave · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yep.. I abandoned my hotmail account years ago when they came with additional terms of use and mandatory passport... as for yahoo, I went to yahoo.co.uk as at the time they didn't register all that much and they are still certain that I am 89 years old living in antarctica and I have an avid interest in receiving free information about birdwatching, these free informational mails are forwarded to my hotmail account, which I haven't even thought about since 1998...

      --
      -if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
  12. Ah Slashdot.... by Saeed+al-Sahaf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How is this any different than Google trolling through your email? Oh, it's not quite as bad, but since it's Microsoft, it's Pure Evil? And of course since Google is our Love Child, it's OK for them to do something that in reality is twice as offensive? Ah Slashdot....

    --
    "Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
  13. And? by tomstdenis · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How can you expect privacy when you're giving your info to another person?

    Microsoft didn't force you to login to hotmail. And the fact that you happen to have private information there is your own damn fault.

    It would be different if your ISP was giving out your emails or other details since you pay them for the service...

    And you really don't think Google isn't laughing at the stock of "private" information stored in their gmail archives?

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  14. Ooooh...they wanted my real information? by neckdeepinspecialsau · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Does anyone put real information into hotmail or yahoo mail services?

    If you do and you don't want to feel free to use my "real information":

    Bob Smith 1313 Mockingbirdlane Beverly Hills Califonia 90210 555-555-5555 (h) 555-555-5555 (c) alternate email ifjeufeiehhc@yahoo.com

    The real question is do they feel guilty charging for junk data?