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Microsoft is dumb
Proton, a privacy first VPN/email/drive/etc service based in Switzerland, puts out a blog that unsurprisingly focuses on privacy, but also general shenanigans caused by the big tech firms.
I disagree with Proton when they complain about apple’s monopoly over their app stores. Developers were insanely excited about how cheap the pricing/pay ratio was going to be in comparison to others at the time, but I guess I’m too old to be relevant to that discussion. Nonetheless, I will normally side with Apple because it’s a great product and if you don’t like it, you have many other options to go to. So it’s not a big deal.
Except both Google and Microsoft have seen how well Apple’s “Walled Garden” works and both have been becoming more like that in the last decade. This pisses me off beyond explanation. Unlike many, I use both Windows and Apple everyday. I use both iOS and Android everyday. I also use Linux and Unix and I even used to use Solaris, but Oracle sucks… So we can’t have nice things. I used to love the diversity of products available for Windows in both the hardware and software spaces. There was always significantly more choice. Now Windows is taking a cue from Apple and limiting what can and cannot run on its systems. Don’t even get me started with their stupid TPM Chip. Short story long, if you don’t like Apple, that’s perfectly fine! Vote with your wallet and take your money elsewhere. Except the competition is becoming an Apple Clone. That’s an issue.
All this to say without due diligence from each individual online, privacy is a myth. And Microsoft just warned the UK about it:
https://proton.me/blog/outlook-is-microsofts-new-data-collection-service
So on or after January 5th 2024, AZ from HeelvsBabyface might have opened up a new update from Microsoft’s Outlook and got a pop up notification that 722 Third Parties (+Microsoft) had access to his emails, his geolocation, his calendar, etc for “More Targeted” Advertising. Advertising which may include Microsoft throwing two “New” emails at the top of your list that are actually ads instead of emails.
Plot twist: The United States are also subject to these 722 Third Parties… We just won’t get a warning or heads up like the UK did.
I will also take a moment and gently remind you that during the pandemic when people were forced to stay home, Microsoft’s cloud services boomed. So did others, but I was at Microsoft at the time and it was insanely busy. They made significant, record breaking profits during the pandemic. Something something money from the small businesses going to the big businesses… but no one remembers that, right? No one remembers Pfizer minting 12 new billionaires? *sigh* They don’t need this money. They have money. But they’re looking for ways to exploit the user for more money. And certainly not to save their Xbox brand. Clearly I’m not bitter about the Xbox news at all.
I’m not going to tell you what products you should or shouldn’t use in your day to day activities. I just want you to be aware your information, such as SMTP and IMAP details from any external email service you link to Outlook may be scanned and used by Microsoft and that your passwords for those accounts will now belong to them.
The same way all your pictures, emails, documents, and such that exist on Google platforms belong to Google. That’s right, they can prevent you from transferring files in Google Docs if anything in them violates their ToS… Look it up. It happened during The Rona under false pretense of misinformation, but more importantly: How did they know what was in that doc to begin with? Exactly.
Do your due diligence, keep your information as safe as you can on the internets, and remember, Apple defended a terrorist because unlocking his iPhone 5C would mean the government had a back door into your iPhone. So they may not be a perfect company, they will still try to make money off some of your information, but they are at least genuinely fighting for your privacy.
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