4 ms·

How did you create this account? If you do it through the web interface (https://signup.live.com/ https://signup.live.com/) you used to get a vanilla MS accoun

How did you create this account? If you do it through the web interface (https://signup.live.com/ https://signup.live.com/) you used to get a vanilla MS account. However if you create one through Windows 10 I guess you will also automatically be signed up for all included services, which includes Skype. Also, one time it was possible to "unlink" Skype from your Microsoft account (which basically consists out of removing your information from the Skype Global Address Book) by contacting someone from the Skype support team. However since a few months they made this removal process a self-service feature which unfortunately includes closing the entire Microsoft account linked to Skype. So your best bet is contacting a support rep from the Skype support team and ask for your details to be removed from the address book. If they can't do this anymore you are probably SOL. Good luck!

hackerfromthefu 9y ago
I created the MS account through the web interface, and didn't link it with the pc. I've just checked and the pc is still using it's local account with no sign of the MS account from the web (which is as it should be). Thanks for your suggestion. Based on that I've checked the profile for the address book on skype and apparently the test account email is not shown. I did talk with Skype support, and they wouldn't do anything. They've clearly been trained what to say about this issue, and to not even begin to attempt to do anything to resolve it. I'm think I will create my own luck here, and migrate away from Skype fully, and MS as much as I can, because of these abusive Dark Patterns, the tricking users into things they don't want while hoovering up personal information are too prevalent in MS now. For any readers who aren't familiar with the issues, there are a number of writeups and arstechnica is a good source - the big and clear events are the win 10 upgrade dialog, the tricks to make the local PC account harder to use when installing Windows, and this latest example of linking separate accounts without asking while breaking the usual boundaries of web pages isolation from other things on your PC and not allowing unlinking of the accounts forcibly and unexpectedly linked. It's part of a pattern of abusive behaviour from Dark Patterns of UX, and I expect them to continue exploiting their customers in these ways. So I'm going to create my own luck by removing as much of their influence from my life as possible. Starting with skype :) (Edited for a grammar fix.)

hackerfromthefu 9y ago

I created the MS account through the web interface, and didn't link it with the pc. I've just checked and the pc is still using it's local account with no sign of the MS account from the web (which is as it should be). Thanks for your suggestion. Based on that I've checked the profile for the address book on skype and apparently the test account email is not shown. I did talk with Skype support, and they wouldn't do anything. They've clearly been trained what to say about this issue, and to not even begin to attempt to do anything to resolve it. I'm think I will create my own luck here, and migrate away from Skype fully, and MS as much as I can, because of these abusive Dark Patterns, the tricking users into things they don't want while hoovering up personal information are too prevalent in MS now. For any readers who aren't familiar with the issues, there are a number of writeups and arstechnica is a good source - the big and clear events are the win 10 upgrade dialog, the tricks to make the local PC account harder to use when installing Windows, and this latest example of linking separate accounts without asking while breaking the usual boundaries of web pages isolation from other things on your PC and not allowing unlinking of the accounts forcibly and unexpectedly linked. It's part of a pattern of abusive behaviour from Dark Patterns of UX, and I expect them to continue exploiting their customers in these ways. So I'm going to create my own luck by removing as much of their influence from my life as possible. Starting with skype :) (Edited for a grammar fix.)