[771] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] Privacy Invasive Sharing of Contact Data by
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Thu Jul 22 11:44:41 2010
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:27:59 -0700
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Report: Privacy Invasive Sharing of Contact Data by Microsoft Windows Live
http://www.nnsquad.org/archives/nnsquad/msg03910.html
- - -
http://bit.ly/9vxcTs (Windows Secrets)
If this story is completely accurate (more info would be appreciated),
it suggests that Microsoft has placed Windows Live seriously in
competition for Facebook's Zuckerberg Privacy Obfuscation Award. As
the author notes, these kinds of leakages -- whether caused by overly
complex and confusing privacy controls, unreasonably lax defaults, or
broken functionalities, can potentially have very serious consequences
for individuals. And yes -- it's not a stretch -- even lethal ones.
It's one thing to err in such a design and quickly improve the system
when the potential problems are pointed out. That's usually
forgiveable, though more proactive testing to reveal such issues
before launch is always to be recommended. But it's something else
again to insist -- as Microsoft seems to be doing -- that such a
design is the right way of doing things. That's a recipe for serious
trouble.
Again, more information on this reported behavior from Windows
Live (which I do not routinely use) would be useful.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com)
http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance):
http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz
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