4 ms·

If you login to Outlook.com (which is extremely slow btw), you'll also find the following settings page available from the bottom right cog icon: https://data.c

by junto 14y ago

If you login to Outlook.com (which is extremely slow btw), you'll also find the following settings page available from the bottom right cog icon: https://data.choice.microsoft.com/mydata/UserInterests https://data.choice.microsoft.com/mydata/UserInterests Under 'My Data' it stores Bing Searches and takes guesses as to your 'Interests'. How does it do that exactly? Operationally, how different is Outlook.com a.k.a Hotmail, compared to Google? Both are free, and nothing is for free in this world. So, Microsoft also have an angle. Digging further you'll find information on Microsoft Advertising, which is something I don't remember actively opting in to, but I appear to be registered for: https://data.choice.microsoft.com/MyChoices/MSAdvertising https://data.choice.microsoft.com/MyChoices/MSAdvertising It states, and I quote: > About Microsoft Advertising > With the Microsoft Personal Data Dashboard (beta), you can choose not to receive personalized ads on websites that use the Microsoft Advertising Platform by not allowing Microsoft Advertising to use your information. > Information used by Microsoft Advertising > The Microsoft Advertising Platform customizes personalized ads based on different types of information, including but not limited to: > Bing searches > Interests > Profile > What does it mean not to allow Microsoft Advertising to use your information? > Well, first, it doesn't mean you will stop getting ads or see fewer ads; but, it does mean that the ads you get won't be personalized anymore by Microsoft Advertising. Microsoft will continue to collect information for other uses, such as delivering content that is personalized for you; for example, the news articles displayed on MSN and the results you get when you search for software updates. I guess, at least I can opt-out. Google doesn't allow me to opt-out of their creepiness. Saying that though, even though GMail creeps me out, but I'm addicted to the user interface.

junto 14y ago
"You can also opt-out of getting personalized ads from advertising companies other than Microsoft, on the Consumer Choice page.": http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ http://www.aboutads.info/choices/
- huhtenberg 14y ago
  Personalized ads is not an issue. Excessive and invasive email scanning and analysis is. It's really a bait-n-switch technique. They are substituting a bigger and more important issue with something tactile but of a superficial value. "Your tumor hurts? We have a Tylenol for that."
psbp 14y ago
"Creepiness"? Are you a child? You seem to comprehend how Google runs its business and pays for its services. Isn't it incredibly ludicrous to call it creepy?
- criley 14y ago
  No, reading personal email to deliver advertisements is creepy. It's better than it used to be but we all remember seeing things like casket advertisements when an email mentioned dead code, etc etc. It's creepy, and I would gladly pay google monthly to prevent them from abusing my privacy. But Google doesn't want money from me, it wants to abuse my privacy. That's far more profitable. It's unfortunate but too many services point to my gmail for me to be able to switch.
  - quesera 14y ago
    > It's unfortunate but too many services point to my gmail for me to be able to switch. One at a time. In a few weeks or months, you'll be done. The point isn't to redirect all email away from Gmail, but to starve it for usable content. You can check multiple mailboxes for as long a transition period as you need. Maybe in perpetuity.
  - MatthewPhillips 14y ago
    Let's define what "read" means in this context. A computer program, most likely a C++ binary, takes the string of your emails, splits on U+0020 and sends the resulting array through a series of algorithms like Levenshtein distance to match to its database of ads.
    - fauigerzigerk 14y ago
      Text mining has come a long way since 1985, so I don't think that's how it's done (in fact I know it's not done that way), but I guess what you mean is that no human ever looks at the data. That's possible, but not reassuring. Many of the shady purposes this data could be misused for don't require a human to ever read it. Say, one day, that C++ binary computes a score that indicates how reliable, credit worthy, dangerous, healthy, honest or skilled you are. Say another C++ binary makes a decision that influences your life based on such a score. A decision on health insurance, banking, job applications, security matters, etc. Is that better, just because no human ever looked at the data and giggled because you searched for some embarrassing disease?
lucb1e 14y ago
Logging in to Gmail is slower than Outlook in my experience, it even got a loading bar. I got IE9 right now so I can't test it (I'm not at my own pc), but this is how it feels to me.
- junto 14y ago
  You may have a point. I use Chrome predominantly. It might well be that Google optimize GMail for Chrome and Microsoft optimize Hotmail/Outlook.com for IE.

by junto 14y ago

junto 14y ago

"You can also opt-out of getting personalized ads from advertising companies other than Microsoft, on the Consumer Choice page.": http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

huhtenberg 14y ago
Personalized ads is not an issue. Excessive and invasive email scanning and analysis is. It's really a bait-n-switch technique. They are substituting a bigger and more important issue with something tactile but of a superficial value. "Your tumor hurts? We have a Tylenol for that."

psbp 14y ago

"Creepiness"? Are you a child? You seem to comprehend how Google runs its business and pays for its services. Isn't it incredibly ludicrous to call it creepy?

criley 14y ago
No, reading personal email to deliver advertisements is creepy. It's better than it used to be but we all remember seeing things like casket advertisements when an email mentioned dead code, etc etc. It's creepy, and I would gladly pay google monthly to prevent them from abusing my privacy. But Google doesn't want money from me, it wants to abuse my privacy. That's far more profitable. It's unfortunate but too many services point to my gmail for me to be able to switch.
- quesera 14y ago
  > It's unfortunate but too many services point to my gmail for me to be able to switch. One at a time. In a few weeks or months, you'll be done. The point isn't to redirect all email away from Gmail, but to starve it for usable content. You can check multiple mailboxes for as long a transition period as you need. Maybe in perpetuity.
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  Let's define what "read" means in this context. A computer program, most likely a C++ binary, takes the string of your emails, splits on U+0020 and sends the resulting array through a series of algorithms like Levenshtein distance to match to its database of ads.
  - fauigerzigerk 14y ago
    Text mining has come a long way since 1985, so I don't think that's how it's done (in fact I know it's not done that way), but I guess what you mean is that no human ever looks at the data. That's possible, but not reassuring. Many of the shady purposes this data could be misused for don't require a human to ever read it. Say, one day, that C++ binary computes a score that indicates how reliable, credit worthy, dangerous, healthy, honest or skilled you are. Say another C++ binary makes a decision that influences your life based on such a score. A decision on health insurance, banking, job applications, security matters, etc. Is that better, just because no human ever looked at the data and giggled because you searched for some embarrassing disease?

lucb1e 14y ago

Logging in to Gmail is slower than Outlook in my experience, it even got a loading bar. I got IE9 right now so I can't test it (I'm not at my own pc), but this is how it feels to me.

junto 14y ago
You may have a point. I use Chrome predominantly. It might well be that Google optimize GMail for Chrome and Microsoft optimize Hotmail/Outlook.com for IE.