14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft and Google have recently started to hit one another over the latter’s privacy policies regarding some of its most popular services out there. Microsoft claims that Google is not playing fair and that it is actually limiting users’ control over their personal data and also suggests that it is peeping at their emails and overall Internet activity.
Google responded to Microsoft’s allegations suggesting they were mere myths, and even said that, in fact, it was the only one offering users options when it came to managing their personal data online.
The Mountain View-based Internet giant says that Microsoft does not offer such options to its users. Here’s what Betsy Masiello, policy manager, Google, notes in a recent blog post:
But our industry-leading Privacy Dashboard, Ads Preferences Manager and data liberation efforts enable you to understand and control the information we collect and how we use it—and we’ve simplified our privacy policy to make it easier to understand.
Microsoft has no data liberation effort or Dashboard-like hub for users. Their privacy policy states that “information collected through one Microsoft service may be combined with information obtained through other Microsoft services.”
Apparently, Betsy Masiello is wrong. Microsoft does, in fact, have a Dashboard where users can manage their data and privacy settings. Just head here for that: https://choice.live.com/Data/Dashboard.
As TheWindowsClub notes in a recent post, through this, Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard Beta users can control some of their online personal information, while also being able to opt in or out of some services and the like.
There is a MyProfile tab where info you entered when creating the Live account is listed. Next to it, the My Data tab, lists Interests, Bing searches and Microsoft newsletters.
And there is also a My Choices tab, so that people can opt out of personalized advertising, which also informs users on the manner in which these ads are being delivered. It also explains that information on users might continue being collected, and that ads will be delivered based on already collected info.
Not to mention that Microsoft also offers users the possibility to opt-out of personalized advertising from other companies on the Consumer Choice page.
The bottom line is that Microsoft does have a data dashboard for its users to take advantage of, and that it explains pretty straightforward that it is collecting data to use for advertising and what users can and cannot do about it.
