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Last week I read an article by Matt Wilson via PR Daily. Titled, “Microsoft reportedly accessed blogger’s email to trace rogue employee”, the company was called out legally snooping in the blogger’s email, despite its Hotmail privacy policy.
Long story short, Microsoft is reviewing and “evolving” their policies after being reminded of its extreme criticism of the big G.
At the end of Matt’s article, he asks you if Microsoft’s promise to be more careful is enough. GO THERE to post your answer.
Susan Cellura Responds To Microsoft
For many moons, a large number of people have agreed that if you post something on the web, it’s for anyone and everyone to see. In other words, there is no privacy.
Dovetail into email. We don’t own our own servers. We depend on companies for our email systems – Google, Microsoft, Apple…
Here’s the thing – I remember watching an episode of “The Daily Show” where Jon Stewart made a joke referencing the fact that people agree to Apple’s iTunes agreements without reading them. (You know it’s true.)
So the reality is that until you experience an invasion of privacy, you don’t really know to what you are agreeing. You accept the terms with blind faith.
With that said, one of my secret dream careers was to be an attorney. My father was an attorney and my brother is an attorney. (My favorite attorneys are the ones with ethics and principles, BTW.) So, I have a real idea of what they do for a living.
I think Microsoft and other service providers will make some changes to their policies, but at the end of the day, a legal team’s job is to protect their client. This is no different than you hiring a lawyer to represent your interests.
Until the world forces a serious change to these policies, don’t expect too much privacy.
Agree? Disagree?
About The Author
CEO of E. Marketing Communications, Susan Cellura is a marketing communications professional with over 20 years of experience. She is a dynamic communications professional and enthusiastic team-builder, with a progressive history of success in designing and implementing communications programs for global organizations. A strategic thinker with the ability to understand the needs of multiple audiences and deliver solutions, Susan is a results-oriented problem-solver with exceptional interpersonal and negotiation abilities. Connect with her on Twitter and LinkedIn.
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Yeah I think that’s a pretty accurate analysis. I think part of the problem lies in the fact that it’s a question of systems and size… if you’re on a peer to peer / mesh network (or, for old schoolers who remember the little PC connected to other PC symbol) it’s less of an issue, but there are inherent risks in putting your information onto a large network.
If you look at who you do business with, and then who THEY do business with, it gets to be a stunningly large network fairly quickly. That’s the tricky part, who gets to control the flow of information? A lot more power there than in what the actual information is, and puts us square in a McLuhan Medium is the Message quandary. I suspect the message is that we are consumers, or as a friend of mine said the other day… “if you do something online and you can’t tell what the product is, YOU’RE the product.”