This shouldn’t be normalised
Outlook got updated on my iPhone last night and now they want me to agree to having my data shared with 807 partners.
Important note: I don’t use outlook as my primary email provider. I use Proton with a custom domain but I keep outlook for some old emails.
Ridiculous. How can someone write "we value your privacy" and then share data with 807 partners. If I share anything with 8 people I pretty much consider it public information already, unless I have a very good reason to trust them. Sharing something with 807 companies is probably less private than taking all that data, putting it up on a billboard, and placing that billboard next to the busiest place in town.
And what exactly qualifies as "legitimate interest"?
I'm legitimately interested in getting the bank account & sort code details of Elon, Bezos, Arnault, Zuckerberg, Gates, Ballmer, Buffet, Ellison, Page, and Brin.
That ist something I ask myself, too. It's so irritating, having to decline all these greasy fingered little fuckers one-by-one. That is just a way for me, nowadays, to delete the app completely.
$$$
I think this is so they can have it auto toggled on per some EU regulations, forcing you to go through and untoggle every single one with "legitimate interest".
It's what I assume, anyway
I was also curious about this and just had a chat with gpt 3.5 about it, and it gave an example of "a bank collecting data to detect and prevent fraud" as a valid legitimate interest and "a company collecting data to sell to advertisers" as an invalid legitimate interest.
It also said that legitimate interests must be explained, as on what interests they are, why they are considered legitimate, how the processing of that data accomplishes that interest and any potential impact it has on the user's privacy and freedom.
Based on this, I think "legitimate interest" is being used as a reason instead of a category that covers genetic legitimate reasons that should still be explained, not hand waved as "legitimate interest".
Though I believe this only applies in the context of the GPDR (because the bot specifically mentioned it), and might vary in other jurisdictions.
807 is too big for a typical auditorium.
Imagine an auditorium filled to capacity with people standing at the back and crouching in the rows. At the front of the auditorium a Microsoft spokesman is saying "Ok partners, here's the confidential data. Make sure nobody shares it beyond this room. Ok, so David wrote a letter to his mother Nancy on March 2nd, which included the keywords 'prostate', 'cancer' and 'diagnosis'. If you'd like to use those words to show David some ads, go right ahead -- but make sure nobody beyond this room knows this confidential information. Next up is Martha..."
There is a monetary value in what you want to keep private, so of course they value your privacy.
Doublespeak
It's not that they now changed something with data collection and sharing within the update. They always did it, all services free of charge do it and most that cost money likely take the extra money as well.
It's now that they tell you in a short and informative way (1st sentence) and ask for your consent.
What's really infuriating, are websites and services that have an "Accept All" button but no "Reject All". Instead you have to manage individually and sometimes I have to flip 30 separate buttons to disable data sharing, where they even call advertisers a 'necessary 3rd party' requiring interaction on top.
That was a loophole to the original GDPR. That's now against the law in the EU, but bringing cases against all these sites is time consuming.
Now they need to make asking for ID to access or delete data illegal.
There is usually now a "reject all but essential" button. Well, it's an improvement.
I always flip the 30 buttons and then accidentally click Accept All because it’s in the place that I would expect the Confirm My Choices button to be and I am tired of looking at all the buttons and don’t read the most important one. I always tell myself I’ll slow down next time, but I’m just trying to get to the stupid website to read whatever stupid link I clicked on so I’m impatient every time.
There are extensions for that.
In Firefox Consent-o-matic and Ghostry both do a good job in android and Linux/Windows.
I have no idea if they have that on iOS though given Apple forces browser makers to reskin Webkit.
30? I've come across website that in this case would list out all 807 partners.
I did one once where it was like 400 toggles. Took me 10 minutes. I did it just to see how ridiculous it was. I don't remember what site it was but I definitely never went back.
chad europe union, to expose that shit
I love so many things that EU has done especially with GDPR But then they come up with this crap and you wonder what they were thinking
They were thinking that those caps were among the top items found littering beaches. So they put forward this measure to attempt to curb that issue.
Nobody should be buying single use bottles anyway if there are alternatives available. Maybe that's the quiet part - making them less attractive to consumers
Drinking from a can only works from one side, so I guess think of it that way.
Do you actually wonder?
Those caps get lost way less and since the bottles themselves usually get recycled now the caps also stay in the cycle.
And it took me like 5 bottles to get used to it.
Even a slow learner should get it sooner or later.
I love how they just say "we value your privacy" and then list out half of their means of data collection. Microsoft ain't even trying anymore.
This kind of doublespeak has become the standard for corporate bullshittery.
At this point, ANY communication from service providers that starts out like this is just another way for them to screw you for profit.
They learned it from politics. Anything 'for the children'...
That's how they sold us the Patriot Act, 'for OUR safety'...
FUUUUCK it makes me so ANGRY I taste blood...
It's a typo. They meant to say "we put value on your privacy." As in dollars and cents.
Cops say they're there to protect and serve.
And while we're on that subject, all C-suite execs are bastards too.
By value they mean how much they salivate about selling it for profit.
They want you to think that "to value it" in this context means "to have it in high steem". When it's more like "to put a price tag on it".
807 partners sounds like the answer to what's the point of ad blockers
Some third parties may have a legitimate interest.
Some.
Off course they "value" your privacy. They sell and profit so much value out of your privacy
Wait.. is this real or parody? At this point I can no longer tell...
Oh it's very real. Microsoft is one of the absolute worst companies for amount of raw data they hoover up.
Don't believe it? Try logging into the Outlook Web client with uBlock or uMatrix turned on and look at the number of requests it stops.
Reality has become parody. There's no difference anymore.
the reject all button should atleast be normalized
atleast
Not a word.
be normalized
The default for sure.
Not a word.
So they missed the space bar, do you really need to be a douchenozzle about it?
I wonder how many people haven’t realised that the new Mail/Outlook client, the one they’re pushing everyone towards in Windows, actually syncs all your mail to MS servers.
Yeah, Microsoft is trying to normalise the idea that your own personal email client should be open to them to access and steal your data so they can advertise at you.
Fuck windows and fuck outlook.
Thunderbird is free and entirely private on all platforms (And K9 mail on Android is also maintained by the Thunderbird team)
Full thunderbird for android when? 💔
I have. Happily using Thunderbird now.
I haven't. Mozilla Thunderbird FTW.
Also, I seem to recall my dad migrating to a new machine borking his email because of something like that. ( I didn't catch the details. he was grumbly and growly in ways only a unix admin could be.)
I'm so glad I don't have to rely on Microsoft products anymore. Windows completely went to shit after 7.
It used to be 797
800ish entities is not "partners".
"Partners" are people you could invite to site around a conference table with you. For it to be a partnership, you need to be able to have a meaningful discussion among all the different partners. 800ish is even too big for an auditorium where you're presenting to all your "partners". 800ish is a small arena.
Those aren't partners.
I get what you’re saying, but that’s what it’s called in business. They are usually called “affiliates” more formally, and they provide ancillary income to a business. The whole thing is a partnership - I give you traffic and you give me some money if they convert.
Source: am in marketing and that’s just how it works.
Reject All Button
Took a screenshot and rejected straight away.
If you said to someone "can you keep a secret" and they said "I value your privacy, I'll only share your secret with 807 others", I doubt you'd be telling them many secrets.
Might as well just get your secret printed on a billboard and hang it up in town.
At least there's a "reject all" button.
That's GDPR coming through.
I think that my record is just over 3000 legitimate partners
At least it doesn't say "Accept all" or "pay (monthly)".
Not yet
The other alternative is "Accept All" or "Decline each one Individually by clicking three buttons to confirm your choice"
That would be great, as long as "pay monthly" was guaranteed surveillance-free.
They did that before. They just didn't tell you how many partners!
It's been normalised for years, maybe decade. The only difference is that now they have to bother with telling you and asking for permission (which some still ignore completely).
Also, since we're talking Outlook, some mail client send your credentials to their servers to improve your user experience by fetching mails on their end, meaning that not only data from your device are sent to whoever paid for them, but your actual mails are free for them to access without you ever knowing. The new outlook on desktop does that, but outlook is not the only one to do this.
We live in the greatest of times.
Yikes and a big hell no! Reject, uninstall, and review bomb that fucker into oblivion.
I was certain this was parody before I went and read your text. wtf
At least it has reject all
If i see this kind of shit, 90% of the time their domain would just go into my browsers' blocklist. It's likely either riddled with ads, or hosts incorrect/incompletely information too
For your old emails, use a more private app. iOS Mail is good enough although if you need push for Gmail support, Email by Edison is good as it gives you a single button to press to opt out of Edison Trends.
Their privacy label, in the App Store, is one of the better ones among email clients.
I’m using Proton Mail as my main email. They have an option for forwarding emails from Gmail/Outlook to Proton. I just haven’t done it yet because I almost never use Outlook
Do you pay for email? If so this is wrong. If not, it’s how you pay for email.
Fair enough, they sell access to your eyeballs to their real customers, the advertisers.
But, what isn't fair is that it's 807 "partners". This isn't 807 different brands who might want to advertise to you, it's far more than that. This is 807 different "partners" among whom are Google, Meta, ByteDance, Amazon, Alibaba, etc. who then each go on to sell access to their hundreds of thousands of advertisers.
You can't expect to have a meaningful privacy policy when you're sharing that data with 807 different entities.
I pay for it - family plan. The screen after this is about where I want my ads shown in the app…a paying customer shouldn’t be seeing ads.
Clearly you don't pay ms enough so the poor megacorp have to sell your data to their 807 partners to scrape by.
Agreed. This is wrong.
Literally beyond parody
You should know better than to resort to whores with 807 partners. you've gone past the red flag into the red zone territory.