14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft earlier this year launched an anti-Google petition as part of its Scroogled campaign, trying to show everyone that it pays much more attention to user privacy than its long-time Mountain View-based rival.
Even though the petition was at first ignored by many, it now has more than 150,000 signatures, which means that Microsoft’s Scroogled campaign has at some point managed to attract users’ attention and make them aware of the fact that Google is looking into their emails to deliver ads.
The petition is still online right now and Microsoft wants to reach at least 200,000 signatures to prove that privacy violation is quite an important issue for many users.
“Google reads every word of every email you send to or from a Gmail account in order to target you with ads. They read about your personal relationships, health information, finances, and more. It's illegal for someone to open and read your paper mail without permission, but Google reads every word of every single email you send or receive every single day,” Microsoft says in the official description of the petition.
“Tell Google that you do have an expectation of privacy and that you demand that they stop reading the contents of your private emails to sell you ads.”
Microsoft’s Scroogled campaign was recently revived with a new update, this time aimed at Google’s Chromebooks which are considered useless because they do not run Windows and Office.
At the same time, Redmond has launched its very own Scroogled clothing line, which includes hats, T-shirts, and mugs, many of which got sold out in approximately one day after launch. Microsoft claims that it’s very excited with the response it got so far in the Scroogled campaign, so expect more similar efforts to be launched in the coming weeks.