Microsoft published a new Services Agreement, which clearly states the the company will not snoop into your emails or other communications in order to tailor the advertisements you see to suit and match your interests.
The portion of the agreement that makes this statement is contained in Section 3, which is labeled “Content.” The subsection that addresses Microsoft’s approach to advertising with respect to users and their content is found in section 3.4.
“We don’t use what you say in email, chat, video calls or voice mail, to target advertising to you,” Section 3.4 of the Services Agreement says. “We don’t use your documents, photos or other personal files to target advertising to you. Our advertising policies are covered in detail in the Privacy Statements.”
However, it’s worth noting that, in the very next subsection, Microsoft says that if you use voice-enabled services, you “consent to Microsoft recording and collecting your voice input for use by Microsoft to improve the quality and accuracy of voice enabled services and as further described in the Privacy Statements.” So keep that in mind. Also, this new agreement won’t go into effect until July 31 of this year.
Privacy is a big deal for a lot of people these days, thanks to former NSA analyst Eric Snowden and the absolute bombshells he dropped and leaked around this time last year. Due to Snowden’s decision to shed light on the privacy violations that have occurred at the hands of governments and corporations, some companies have scrambled to assure their customers that their rights are being protected.
