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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."
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.
And you don't think this happens anywhere else? Read the TOS of Google, Yahoo and many other websites you visit.
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.
Why would I have any incentive to move from Google anyways? They bring nothing new to the table that I'm interested in.
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
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.
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
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
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.
.EDU. [That and I'm a bit of a masochist].
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
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
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.