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View Full Version : Hotmail's social networking busts your privacy


Longboard
May 2nd, 2010, 01:51 AM
If you use Hotmail ( and I couldnt imagine why !!)
This might be of interest
http://windowssecrets.com/2010/04/22/01-Hotmails-social-networking-busts-your-privacy
Why would MS leave every privacy option "open to the max" by default ??
This is disturbing:
-{ Quote: "In its rush to take on Facebook and Google Buzz, Microsoft is now collecting and displaying personal information on your Hotmail page — information you may never have wanted to broadcast.
Exactly how it's mining this information is something of a mystery...
I'll give two examples where the source of the new Hotmail content mystifies me. I made a comment on December 11, as shown in Figure 1, but I have no idea where Microsoft found that text. (You won't find it searching on Google or Bing.) What's new also says that I commented on Kim's file — but I have no idea who Kim is. Clicking through on the linked PDF e-book turns up a dead link. By clicking on Kim, I discovered that she is or was a marketing manager at Microsoft Press. But I still have no idea how she ended up as a What's new link with my name on it.

I'll readily confess that I don't recall every I agree button I've ever pushed. But I'm reasonably certain I've never given Microsoft permission to mash together information about a woman I've never heard of and stick it under my name on other people's Hotmail pages." }-
:what:
Beautiful. LOL.

EscapeVelocity
May 2nd, 2010, 02:44 AM
Both MicroSoft and Google are disturbing.

hierophant
May 2nd, 2010, 01:27 PM
Jebus. OK, so I used MS chat a few years ago, and I have a Live account (needed for volume licensing). And sure enough, MS had created a nice home page for me, with status updates from people I hardly remember :gack: Gone now. Thanks, Longboard :)

chrisretusn
May 3rd, 2010, 05:21 AM
Thanks Longboard. I check messages via POP3 so I never log in using the web interface. I checked my Hotmail (aka Windowes Live) account and found it wide open. Not much there to see though, but I did close it up as much as the allowed. This sort of thing should be opt-in darn it.