Microsoft … like Amazon, Facebook, and Google … realize that the days of the Wild West are coming to an end. Get what one can while the gittin’ is good as the old timers used to say.
“You said data privacy?”
23 March 2021 (Zurich, Switzerland) – The online news stream is chock full of information about Microsoft’s swing-for-the-fences PR push for Discord. If you are not familiar with the service, I am not going to explain this conduit for those far (far) more youthful than I. But click here for a review of why this is so hot right now.
Like GitHub, Discord is going to be an interesting property if the Redmond crowd does the deal. If we anticipate Discord becoming part of the Xbox and Teams family, the alleged censorship of software posted to GitHub (which Microsoft owns) will be a glimpse of the content challenges in Microsoft’s future.
The more interesting development is the “real” news story about how Microsoft Edge will soon start sharing browsing data with Windows 10 as detailed in an excellent piece by Martin Brinkmann. And if you don’t know who Martin is … well you don’t cover data privacy. He is always a “must read” to get the skinny on what’s going on IRL in tech, data privacy and all the underlying pipes and tubes that make the Net and the Web work.
His article states (pardon the anthropomorphism):
Called share browsing data with other Windows features, it is designed to share data from Edge, such as Favorites or visited sites, with other Windows components. Search is a prime target, and highlighted by Microsoft at the time of writing. Basically, what this means is that users who run searches using the built-in search feature may get Edge results as well.
And what does Microsoft get? Possibilities include:
• Federated, fine grained user behavior data
• Click stream data matched to content on the user’s personal computer
• Real-time information flows
• Opportunities to share data with certain entities.
What happens to the user’s computer if said user does not accept such integration? The options range from loss of access to certain data to pro-active interaction to alter the functioning of the user’s computing device.
Why is this such a good idea? Microsoft, like Amazon, Facebook, and Google realize that the days of the Wild West are coming to an end. There are new sheriffs with new ideas about right and wrong.Thus, get what one can while the gittin’ is good as the old times used to say.
But “What about security and privacy and all these new data privacy laws?” you may ask?
My response is “That’s a good one!! 🤣 Why not try stand up?”