a5cent
New member
That sentence probably sounds very different to you than it does to me. I understand it to say that we're entirely ignorant and have absolutely no hope of understanding what any of these companies are doing. It's futile, so why the f*%& care about it. Let's Surrender. Give up. Become complacent (I'm obviously exaggerating just to get the point across).
Unfortunately, I must now also include the obligatory disclaimer. This is not about comparing the dark advertising lord Google to the shining saviour of privacy, prince Microsoft. Everything is grey, just different shades of it. That being said, understanding the differences between both companies business models (which is admittedly something few care to think about) should make it clear to any educated person that there must be very significant differences between the two, specifically in regard to whom they view their customers to be, and how they are incentivised to think about privacy.
The affects of those differences are apparent in their legal mumbo-jumbo (again, something few care to read). In their ToS, Microsoft commits themselves to keeping all the data they collect and store about their users private. They are also very explicit about the few exceptions, namely the technical contractors MS pays to operate and maintain their server farms around the globe. MS also legally restricts themselves from combining the data collected through their various services into a single user profile, meaning every service only gets access to the information it requires specifically to do its job. There is no combined and consolidated behavioural profile on each individual user, which exists solely as input for psychoanalysis software.
So, can we know that MS isn't breaking any of its legal obligations? No. I agree. We can't. However, Microsoft is a U.S. company, from which vast sums of money can be extracted by proving in court that they failed to meet their legal obligations. At least for me, that seems like a very good insurance policy. I'm willing to trust that more than I'm willing to trust most people.
Compare that with Google's ToS, where they go out of their way not to restrict themselves at all. Anything they collect is theirs to do with as they please. Can we assume they are selling data left and right. No. I agree. We can't. However, does that uncertainty justify the assumption that both companies will treat privacy equivalently, now and in the future? IMHO that is intellectually dishonest.
Last edited:
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram