Microsoft’s Scroogled campaign is at it again, this time knocking Google’s belief that a user should have no expectation of privacy when sending an email. Microsoft, on the other hand, disagrees with that notion.
“Just as a sender of a letter to a business colleague cannot be surprised that the recipient’s assistant opens the letter, people who use web-based email today cannot be surprised if their communications are processed by the recipient’s ECS provider in the course of delivery. Indeed, a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy in information he voluntarily turns over to third parties,” Google recently stated in a response to a class-action lawsuit.
Microsoft is knocking Google for making that statement, in addition to Google’s belief that one should not expect privacy when using a WiFi connection in your own home. Apparently, Google was sending out these Google Street cars to map a location and ended up intercepting private data via WiFi.
These Google Street cars “collected names, addresses, telephone numbers, URL’s, passwords, e-mail, text messages, medical records, video and audio files, and other information from internet users in the United States.” Google has even gone as far as trying to patent the term “Scroogling” to stop Microsoft in its tracks.
Microsoft believes users should have a legitimate expectation of privacy. Microsoft is touting Outlook.com as a service that “prioritizes privacy” and “doesn’t read the contents of your personal communications to target you with ads.”
Microsoft has launched a petition for users who are against this practice to urge Google to change its ways. You can sign that petiton here.
