Microsoft Privacy Chief Announces Windows Cognitive Impairment
by John Paczkowski
Posted on August 29, 2008 at 6:05 PM PT
Microsoft seems to be suffering from a bit of institutional memory loss. How else to explain the company’s recent pot-to-kettle slagging of Google’s approach to privacy? “Google’s a great company, got some great products, but you know, in some respects, I think Google is where Microsoft was seven or ten years ago,” Peter Cullen, Microsoft’s chief privacy strategist, told ZDNet. “Microsoft has over 40 full-time people invested in privacy and over 400 part-time people. Google hasn’t–at least from what I read about them–evolved to that.”
Perhaps, perhaps not. But Microsoft’s record on privacy isn’t exactly untarnished–at least from what I’ve read about them. And that makes Cullen’s comment more than a bit ironic.
Surely we haven’t forgotten the privacy firestorm that erupted around Microsoft’s .NET Passport system back in 2002. There was an FTC investigation and enforcement action and a European Commission probe as well. And who could forget Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), the anti-piracy program that phoned home to Microsoft every time a user rebooted his or her PC? And while it made headlines about a decade ago, the company’s Windows Registration Wizard, which was caught transmitting all manner of personally identifiable information to Microsoft, is still likely to redden a face or two in Redmond.
So maybe Google (GOOG) doesn’t have 400 part-time people working on privacy. But is it really where Microsoft (MSFT) was seven or ten years ago? Really?
Comments
Maybe he was referring to where Microsoft was in the market 7-10 years ago.
Posted by Dave Hatch at August 30th, 2008 at 12:18 amThe anti-privacy examples mentioned are indeed concerning — but they don’t being to compare to the information that Google collects and stores about it’s customers. Imagine if Microsoft logged everything you did on your PC and sent it to their servers … that would be a closer comparison.
Posted by Gus Johnson at August 30th, 2008 at 3:56 pmAt some point Microsoft became less about innovation and more about reputation. For such a large piece of the pie, the company seems very out of touch.
Posted by Ken Okel at August 31st, 2008 at 9:35 am