On 10/17/2015 3:30 PM, Vic Smith wrote:

If MS does anything illegal, I'm sure the feds will jump on them.
There are plenty of people "spying" on MS too.

I don't think the issue is MS breaking the law. Rather, I think
Mayayana is lamenting the lack of concern folks have for personal
privacy.

I tend to be obsessive about privacy issues -- yet am not about to
move to a cabin in the back woods (drawing even MORE attention to
myself!) just to avoid these "data leaks".

I don't plan on doing anything illegal, but if I do I sure as hell
won't do it on my computer.

You may not be doing anything technically *illegal* -- yet not want
knowledge of that to become available to others!

My (ex)BinL was "fishing in someone else's pond". When my sister
suspected this, we sat down with his cell phone records, ATM
cards, credit cards, etc. -- i.e., all of the bills that my sister
routinely paid. Instead of just looking at the "Pay this amount"
line, we started looking at the items *listed* as part of that total.

It wasn't hard to figure out which days he had started *out* for
work -- yet ended up traveling in the opposite direction, spending
8 hours "there" before conveniently "coming home from work".
Of course, it's relatively easy to figure out who *owns* the phone
numbers that he was calling. And, see the patterns to all this...

Likewise, his facebook page, etc.

Technically, no evidence of any *laws* being broken. But, I can assure
you, he wasn't happy that this information was "available" to others!

Anyway, I'm not pro or anti MS. It just IS.
You apparently don't like MS.

As I said upthread, I don't see the alarm in complaining that MS is doing
something that others figured out LONG BEFORE MS!

In the 70's, there was a TV show (one of those "magazine" shows...
maybe 60 minutes?) that did a piece of these sorts of issues -- long before
folks had email addresses, Intellius, etc.

Basically, they took a couple's canceled checks for the previous 12
month period and, with their consent, flew them to the "other coast"
and gave them to a PI. The PI was instructed not to break any laws,
and not to contact them. But, given 30 days to deduce everything
he could about this couple.

Then, the "show" went back to show you their daily lives, their
home, family, car(s), Dad headed off to work, etc. I.e., to give
you an idea of how they lived.

At the end of the show, they revisited the PI and asked him what
conclusions he could draw from their canceled checks. And, you
saw him deducing much of the same stuff that you'd just been
*shown* (she's pregnant, has her hare neatly coifed, they drive
an older model car, he wears a suit to work, they have two dogs,
etc.).

Just from the record of those transactions that they considered
worth the time to RECORD on little slips of paper (checks!).

[Imagine what could be done if you could watch their web
searches, track their phone calls, etc.]

Seeing this just at teh time that *I* was becoming a financially
independent actor (i.e., my own credit cards, not relying on
mommy and daddy to buy things for me, etc.) had a profound
effect on the information that I "willingly leak".

[E.g., shortly after moving here, some "religious types" came
knocking on the door. Lots of casual questions that were obviously
intended to "collect data". They were disappointed that I wasn't as
"forthcoming" in volunteering details that were of interest to
them (who the f*ck are you people? what makes you think I'd
want you to know these things?? do *I* get to grill you about
arbitrary questions that *I* might consider "interesting"? : )]