With Microsoft’s rollout of the new Outlook for Windows(new window), it appears the company has transformed its email app into a surveillance(new window) tool for targeted advertising.Everyone talks about the privacy-washing(new window) campaigns of Google and Apple as they mine your online data to generate advertising revenue. But now it looks like Outlook is no longer simply an email service(new window); it’s a data collection mechanism for Microsoft’s 772 external partners and an ad delivery system for Microsoft itself.
Here’s how and why.
Time ago we used professional services to safeguard us from external threats. They were and still are good at it, all the big companies do an excellent job and they have the infrastructure and competence to close holes and deal with unexpected threats (fast) when discovered. Very convenient for the user.
The current issue is, now the threat to the user come from the very company and its services instead of externally. Threat, not as in being hacked/cracked or virus, but threat as in privacy violation (yes yes the user agree to all this, but do they really? are they aware of the ToS?), vast data collection from the user.
Microsoft’s privacy policy shows what personal data it may extract:
Name and contact data
Passwords
Demographic data
Payment data
Subscription and licensing data
Search queries
Device and usage data
Error reports and performance data
Voice data
Text, inking, and typing data
Images
Location data
Content
Feedback and ratings
Traffic data
Would any external intruder or virus bother with all that? So who is the bigger threat to your privacy? Yes they all offer good service but at what cost? The invisible cost get collected and used against you.
#Privacy #Microsoft #Outlook #Surveillance #Datacollection
Outlook is Microsoft’s new data collection service
