
Microsoft Admits Humans Listen to Skype and Cortana in Privacy Policy Update - metaphysics
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvgpkv/microsoft-updates-privacy-policy-admits-humans-listen-to-cortana-skype
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bubble_talk
I can relate a funny story about this. A Microsoft employee I know very well
used to work at Bing and then moved on to another organization within MSFT. He
isn't a big fan of Google (surprise!). When similar news came out about Google
recently (audio recordings got leaked I think), he said everyone should stop
using Google if they care about their privacy. So I told him that if that is
the case Microsoft should have at least distanced themselves from Facebook
after all the Facebook scandals which came out recently (they actually still
own some chunk of Facebook shares if I understand correctly). He got a little
stunned, mumbled something about how no one person represents an entire
company's views, and proceeded to change the topic. :-) I would also now be
curious to know what he thinks about the current story.

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kyriakos
so.. if they just added a simple disclaimer when you start a chat with
translator enabled would that fix the issue?

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curiousgal
This is akin to asking for forgiveness being easier than asking for
permission.

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kyriakos
The problem is that you don't get to opt in and know in advance so you don't
say anything confidential over a call. If they gave users a warning then I
guess this whole thing wouldn't be blown out of proportion.

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btxxa
How do you sensibly tell a user "we are listening to this conversation"?

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eitland
Like Google did it in the old days?

> "READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY, THIS IS NOT THE NORMAL YADDA YADDA

> We are going to READ ALL YOUR FILES to index them.

> If you have a problem with this, cancel the installation.

> We are not going to ..."

This is how I remember that part of the installation process for Google
Desktop Search. Crystal clear. I knew exactly what was supposed to happen and
I had a warning in case it wouldn't be OK with policies at work.

And yes, YADDA YADDA or something similarily sounding was part of the first
line.

