With little noise Microsoft updates its privacy policy to permit shared data, just like Google

We all just click ‘yes’ on privacy statements (even after that South Park episode) so it’s easy for changes to go unnoticed. According to The NY Times, Microsoft has now changed their privacy policy to permit the use of information across their products. So information that comes from Messenger can be used to improve Skype or Bing for example. This is the same thing that caused a huge uproar against Google just a few month ago, but this time there’s no noise at all. Of course there’s a difference as Google uses that information a lot more aggressively. Despite the change in policy, Microsoft still does not data mine – they won’t read your emails and provide ads based on that content for example. Google does that. With that said, the new Microsoft policy could permit that, but Microsoft has stated that they will not and do not use it that way.

In the end, Google may have broken the ice for Microsoft and that shows how the slippery slope goes. Granted, it’s ultimately different but this is part of the ongoing chipping away of privacy at the same time we have an increased reliance on cloud services and services held by a handful of providers.