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Groups Call For Investigation of MS Ad Service
narramissic writes, "The Center for Digital Democracy and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group have filed a complaint with the FTC, asking for an investigation into Microsoft's use of customer data collection in its adCenter Web advertising service. The groups claim that 'Microsoft has embarked on a wide-ranging data collection and targeting scheme that is deceptive and unfair to millions of users.' Microsoft, for its part, says the groups 'have got it all wrong.'"
That was about contentless, other than blatant MS bashing.
Well, we had older things like the mm2048 and mm256 garbage with Win98 and Win95, along with the NSAkey. The difference is there WAS PROOF.
Where's the proof MS is at it again?
I think I'll go off to Google and look up 'eye rolling' to see what friendly vendors might chime in on an organic supplement I might purchase. And if I get any e-mail from my friends on the subject via my gmail box, I'm sure a slightly more targeted ad will help me out even further.
And, if I forget to pursue this until next month, I think I can be comfortable knowing that since Google knows everything, they'll still be there to help me out.
*eyes roll all the way around, back to slashdot*
Doesn't matter! Sue Microsoft! Investigate!
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I submited this one and it got rejected. Maybe because the bad guy are Firefox/Google.
w s&file=article&sid=215&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Is Firefox/Google Spying on Your News Feeds?
http://legroom.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Ne
Oh, wait!! This is Slash dot. Stupid me!!!
I'm safe from identity theft. I took all of my ID, and locked it in my luggage I bought off of eBay using Linux. Then I wrapped the suit case in tin foil, and placed it in a secret location (under my bed). If Microsoft wants to get my identity, they'll have to find the suitcase and know my secret 5 digit password...
Oh You POS
Do they have an Ad service? 'cough'
then you can see why its a marketeers dream
the Internet and network apps are rapidly just turning it all into an advert sh1tfest, with millions of sites just dedicated to being the middleman. look at Digg's articles for example
most are just filled with vapid random kids blogs all vying for ad impressions by using articles ripped from real news sites, or just linking to the real news story or n articles on how to increase your adsense revenue, no articles on how to create original content that people will actually want to read, or direct links to interesting stories its all the same ripped articles except maximised for advert keyword density and search engine poisoning
there are two business models on the Internet, Advertising and Subscription
no love, no passion , just greed
Question: Did these groups say anything about Google's AdSense?
Honestly, anybody who looks at those targeted ads must realize that information is being harvested to create them. You know what? Good for them! I'd MUCH rather have a service that finds ads of companies I'm interested in than one which either:
1) Slaps up random ads to dating sites, unrelated services also provided by the host company who's service I'm using, etc.
2) Charges me even slightly to offset costs of data storage, server maintenance, R&D, bandwidth, etc.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
They have it all wrong, it was the one armed man!
"You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise, they won't come to yours." -- Yogi Berra
I don't put any particularly sensitive info on GMail or Live Mail, because I know it will be monitored. On the other hand, advertising does help keep a lot of web pages and services (like webmail) free. I'm not going to bitch if, in a discussion of stocks, Google (or MS) finds I'm more likely to click on one online stock broker than another. I'm even LESS likely to bitch if they then post a link to that broker prominently when I search something stock-related, rather than prominently posting some other broker and hiding the one I like behind a link or two.
Anybody who thinks these services work without reading your input and working from what it provides needs to stop believing in magic. However, since Google is non-evil and MS isn't (or at least, that's not their motto) We clearly need to get on MS's case about this... </sarcasm>
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
The group is calling for an investigation of Online Advertising and Consumer Tracking and Targeting Practices http://http//www.democraticmedia.org/issues/privac y/FTCprivacypr.html/. It isnt just focusing on M$ but others as well. Hmmmm people see M$ and the blinkers go on I guess.
"Dark Wings, Dark Words"
I would like to opt-in with one condition. MS should be limited to using only piecharts and spreadsheets on my data. No pivot tables, histograms, or Crystal Reports will be allowed to process my usage information.
I only like my data abused in certain ways for free. If they want to pay for the use of my data with the more powerful tools, I may decide to license them that right. They can call me and we'll negotiate an EULA.
instead of linking to an advert laden pseudo IT site, try the real source
http://www.democraticmedia.org/issues/privacy/FTC
The last 2.
*waves hand
that isn't the collected data you are looking for
It's just an idea!
Google. Well actually, the truth is Google collects far more information and is much better at it.
The real difference is that MS is telling people what they are collecting and how they use it and Google doesn't. Yahoo is awfully quite on the subject too!
Justice will be served, just leave it to the lawyers! Valiant "civic minded" lawyers will take up this incredibly important cause. In 9 months, 17 million people will get a confusing letter in the snail mail, explaining in the fine print that they get a free coupon for 3 blank CDs and a check for $3.12, in return for waiving their rights to sue Microsoft themselves. The lawyers will make $378,000 each for their valiant efforts.
Currently hooked on AMP
considering all the advertising Yahoo, Google, and any other advertising agency that uses the internet, plus all the advertising that gets spewed on Television and Radio, billboards on the side of the road, and all other advertising i missed mentioning, microsoft is just another pig in the poke looking to shove its hungry snout in to the swill...
__all advertising sucks, if i need something i will let you know, until then = STFU!
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...someone has filed a complaint against Microsoft. News at 11.
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
What does Microsoft do that Yahoo, AOL, and Google haven't been doing for their search/advertising for years now?
-David
The recent AOL data leak showed that as big or bigger threats can come from our search data. These folks are grandstanding by going after Microsoft and not the other players. They know that no one will criticize them for bashing Microsoft and that others, like Google have better press and have folled more users, and so are tougher targets. Also, as opposed to Google, Microsoft is more sensitive to the criticism because of the past anti-trust issues and are more likely to respond. Google's response to people like content owners who don't like Google's use of their copyrighted materials without permission, have found that Google's reaction is to claim they are doing public good and then fight in court.
The best example of the threat we face to our privacy from all of these folks is Google. Not Google bashing, just pointing out that they are collecting the most data about us. Google is also collecting more of our use and web patterns through Google desktop and toolbar. Add in the fact that they have your cell number, are indexing your email, have your calendar, etc. Our only protection is they sya that their culture is to "do no evil", but we don't know who defines "evil" and what that definition is. What if the Chinese government wants the data? Will Google provide it so they can stay in the market? They caved on filtering.
Whether is is Microsoft, Google, Yahoo or someone else, the more we are online the more we are telling third parties about us and we have no protections about what they do with the data. These folks all have "terms of use" and simply by using their services you've agreed to them, even if you didn't actually read the terms (almost no one does and most don't even see the link). And if you read the TOS you are pretty unlikely to know what they collect and what they do with it.
Good that the discussion is starting, but wrong target. It is really the whole lot of these guys
It's funny to see this story right now, since I received Microsoft adCenter spam earlier this afternoon. I called at least four Microsoft technical support numbers to complain about it, in addition to reporting the message to Spamcop. Microsoft was able to confirm that Microsoft's adCenter marketing pricks (they didn't use that word exactly) were indeed spamming people.
A "
c t/01/
It's rather ironic to see Microsoft sending bulk unsolicited email, aka spam, since the company has been so vigorous in pursuing third party spammers. I guess it's not spam if Microsoft does it.
Given that I got their spam, it seems that adCenter is both ethically challenged, and collecting personal information from someplace(s) it shouldn't. It's not clear how Microsoft harvested my email address -- I sure as hell didn't give it to them!
Here's part of the email I received:
Return-Path:
Received: from servera02.tk2smtp.msn.com (207.68.176.104) by
xxxxx.xxxxxxxxx.com with ESMTP
(xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) for ;
Wed, 1 Nov 2006 15:14:37 -0800
Received: from cpebsmrmpfil01.phx.gbl ([10.48.8.85]) by servera02.tk2smtp.msn.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830);
Wed, 1 Nov 2006 15:14:26 -0800
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Message-Id:
Date: Wed, 01 Nov 2006 15:14:26 -0800 (PST)
From: Microsoft adCenter
Subject: Ready to sell more? I'm here to help
Content-Return: allowed
X-Mailer: SSAG-Emailer-V7.0.0.0; msnprod
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary="----=_NextPart_650_760_0F8B3D2A.01C6FE0
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
------=_NextPart_650_760_0F8B3D2A.01C6FE0A
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Here's a tip from Search Master Steve:
"SEARCHING FOR CUSTOMERS?
LET THEM SEARCH FOR YOU."
They don't call me Search Master Steve for nothing.
I happen to know a thing or two about getting customers
to find your business.
>Sign up by 12/31/06 and RECEIVE UP TO A $100 CREDIT.*
Did you know?
That search marketing is one of today's inexpensive ways
to reach new customers--right when they're looking to buy.
And that, FOR AS LITTLE AS $5,(1)
I can help you access up to 99 million MSN(R) users,
with 81% of the MSN audience having recently
purchased online(2)--that's 81%!
>See more tips at:
http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/h2e0050000195mrt/dire
And did you know that
you can GET A $100 CREDIT* for ad clicks
when you open a new acco...
This is very lame text to get this comment past Slashdot's very lame lameness filters. Blah blah blah. What the hell was Microsoft thinking when it decided to spam random people? Duh? It must be getting close to Christmas since halloween just passed. The weather sure has been fall-like lately. It was cold last night. I like to pasta. Did you know that carpet is made from little tiny pieces of plastic? No really, it is! If I were to start counting backwards from one hundred, I'd be really bored by the time I reached -100. Cork is both a wood product and a city! You probably wouldn't want a cork board made from a city, so it's vitally important never to confuse the two. You'd probably end up with a Cork school board or something and they'd get totally pissed if you tried to pin something to them.
....and lets face it, the population of the world has grown substantially since the 18th century, and hiring enough pirates to equal the per capita ratio of pirates to non-pirates in an attempt to resolve global warning would be very very costly.... we can just use some of those old, useless nukes and blow the shit out of a magma cap on some unnecessary hunk of rock out in the Pacific ocean. Just blowing the crap out of the cap on one of those volcanoes should do the trick. Maybe at a rate of one volcano per year we can consume all the fuel we like and even burn all our trash! Hell, toss in an extra couple of lava flows per year and we can go back to aerosol deodorants!
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Which is why nobody should use their real name when filling in the customer information papers.
:P but this isn't even common sense with all techies.
It's another great reason why nobody should use their real name on msn.
If you don't want to be used by businesses, don't give them more than they need;
and remember, you decide what they need, they don't.
Don't let yourself be used.
here it gets a bit repetative, for the sake of knocking common sense into some people:
don't let them use you!
I know, I'm preaching to the choir
Blah blah sig blah blah blah irony blah blah
The other day I was on some site with google ads and the advertisment was trying to sell me something like bike shops in Melbourne, Australia which is scary because I do live in that city and I do buy a lot from bike shops but the site I was browsing had nothing to do with that.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
The largest percentage of people who browse the internet use Internet Explorer. Every time you type in a URL but don't type in "http:// in front of the address, you are doing a search. It will take you right to the website but you have also told MS where you are browsing.
The default setting for IE is to search from the Address Bar. You have to manually change it to "Do not search...". What generic user is going to do that? The default search is microsoft.com and about the only reason that it would be changed is if the computer is all spywared up.
Even if you do trust Microsoft to "do the right thing"... Do you trust ANY large corporation to gather this type of information and not use it for their benefit. (and not yours)