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Microsoft Slings Mud at Google's New Policy with "Gmail Man"

- By - Source : The Verge

Microsoft hits Google below the belt with Gmail Man video.

Google's new privacy policy hasn't gone unnoticed, since sparking some controversy about how much the search giant will know about you.

Microsoft has seen this as a prime opportunity to pounce on the offensive, kicking up some dirt towards Google's way in a new ad campaign. Through its social media channels, however, Microsoft has catapulted mud straight towards Google.

Microsoft posted to its YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages a video originally made for the company's internal Global Exchange sales conference last summer. Now it's been officially promoted as another poke towards Google's new privacy policy.

 

Microsoft Pokes Google With Gmail Man

Of course, this video aims to create fear for Gmail users. Google addresses some of these concerns in its FAQ:

Is Google reading my mail?

No, but automatic scanning and filtering technology is at the heart of Gmail. Gmail scans and processes all messages using fully automated systems in order to do useful and innovative stuff like filter spam, detect viruses and malware, show relevant ads, and develop and deliver new features across your Google experience. Priority Inbox, spell checking, forwarding, auto-responding, automatic saving and sorting, and converting URLs to clickable links are just a few of the many features that use this kind of automatic processing.

Does Google share my email with advertisers?

No. Google does not share your email address, your messages, or any other personal information with advertisers.

While Google's system of parsing email text to create ad relevancy isn't new, the question now is how that data will be used across the company's other services.

Read more from @MarcusYam on Twitter.

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supall 02/02/2012 10:08 PM
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Ummm...misleading much? I think so.

Athlon76 02/02/2012 10:17 PM
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I don't care what Google does. NOTHING would make me switch to Office for email.

madooo12 02/02/2012 10:19 PM
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Anomalyx 02/02/2012 10:23 PM
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anro15 02/02/2012 10:47 PM
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So how does Microsoft stop spam email if it does not scan the contents?

mrmaia 02/02/2012 10:51 PM
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Quote :Gmail scans and processes all messages using fully automated systems in order to [...] show relevant ads


Google just told exactly what Microsoft was wanting them to do.

I don't like MSFT's hypocrisy on the issue, but such campaigns can indeed alert people that their online privacy is not private at all.

ahnilated 02/02/2012 10:52 PM
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spasmolytic46 02/02/2012 10:57 PM
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This is why I'm paying for a Virtual Private Server. Best 15 bucks a month I ever spent. I mean hell, that's 3 fancy coffee's + tip...

krowbar 02/02/2012 11:13 PM
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So, since it's Google, people are ok with them scanning their emails?
I really don't understand all this google 'love'.

shoelessinsight 02/02/2012 11:15 PM
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The video blows things out of proportion and is relying on hysterics to turn users off of Gmail, but it is quite funny all the same.

I stayed away from Gmail for a few years because I didn't like the idea of their bots reading my mail to advertise to me. My opinion quickly changed after the DOJ started asking all the search companies to turn over their search data in order to "fight terrorism." Much to my surprise, most search companies (including the one supplying my email at the time) happily handed over the data without complaints. Only Google and a small handful of others actually demanded that the DOJ go through legal channels and force the data from them with a subpoena.

Eventually that did happen, as I recall, and even Google was forced to turn over the data in the end, but at least they fought the issue first, instead of merrily going along with it. I switched to Gmail shortly afterwards. Whatever those ad bots might be doing in my mail, it's not nearly as bad as what some people in the government might do if given free access.

alidan 02/02/2012 11:21 PM
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Anomalyx :
Misleading, yes. Downright lying, also yes. I'm not well versed in libel law, but this video is so false that seems like it should be illegal.



it is, but google cant sue them because if ever taken to court it would be seen more in parody, because it uses comedy instead of bold face lieing. the best google could do is get it taken down but its already on the interent and going after then would make them seam like thats really what they do...

i will never understand what people have such a problem with. i send 1 email every 2 or 3 days, some times more some times far less, if anyone seriously believes people read every email coming and going, they should be commited.

if people have a problem with email being filtered for spam and such... stop using any online mailing solution? send all your messages in an encrypted rar, and make sure the message is an image and the image is a qr code and make sure that the qrcode uses 3 forms of real world cryptography and is written in piglatin at the very end, at that point its possible that no one can read your message.

i mean really, a computer sees my inbox, puts up an add based on keywords... fine i don't care... i have 5 addresses and i use a few as an online locker between me and a few friends for sending each other large files, this was before download services though...

Camikazi 02/02/2012 11:24 PM
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mrmaia :
Google just told exactly what Microsoft was wanting them to do.I don't like MSFT's hypocrisy on the issue, but such campaigns can indeed alert people that their online privacy is not private at all.


You realize that every email company that does automatic spam and virus scanning is basically opening your mail yes? No ones online privacy is private, it does not exist, at every single step of the way there are companies and people who can (at any time) access ANYTHING you do online. Online privacy is mostly a fantasy unless you control every machine between your home and the end computer including the pipe that all the data goes through. If you do not have control over it then someone else does and they also have control of your info.

silver565 02/02/2012 11:34 PM
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Lol this advert is brilliant!

silver565 02/02/2012 11:35 PM
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To be fair, I've seen these sort of things happen. As soon as I started emailing my friend in aussie. BAM! "Travel to Australia cheap" adverts came up

DSpider 02/02/2012 11:46 PM
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Just the usual FUD coming from Microsoft.

webdev511 02/02/2012 11:49 PM
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Wow, so digging up a video that was first shown at the 2010 partner conference is "new mudslinging" ?

Sorry folks, just because this is the first time you've seen it, doesn't make it new. Not even close.

LORD_ORION 02/02/2012 11:57 PM
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"Got his nose in every colon" lol

This is an absolutely fantastic video, just too bad the office 365 is in it.

Would have been better if MS didn't directly affiliate themselves with the video, and instead their appropriate ads were displayed when viewed.

HEXiT 02/02/2012 11:57 PM
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thing is i dont want there adds. the reason i use google as my home page is because its add free... theres enough adds on tv without me being force fed them every time i log in to my mail reader... i get enough spam emails already because of these bots...

so no thanx... i dont want em so give me the opportunity to opt out of it please...

i suggest that if you get any adds directed at you specifically that you click junk then set them as phising scams... that way they get blocked and wont even appear in your junk folder.
seriously these companies scanning your emails even with bots is an invasion of privacy...
so get out my email folder and stop taking short cuts to get me to look at adds i dont want to see anyway...
if i want a holiday i will go look for holiday providers, same with anything else i may want... i will look for it when i want it, i dont need to be told every 5 mins that i need this or that a bot took a keyword... seriously invade my privacy so you can advertise to me??? im sure theres gonna be laws against that... if there isnt already...
after all you would object if a postie opens your mail and saw you are paying a loan back. he decides to send you his loan companies info because they have lower rates... how long b4 he ends up in court...

in the uk junk mail has gotten so bad that the postmen are delivering it instead of legitimate letters... at 1 time you could post a letter at 9am and by 12pm the next day it would be at its destination... today your lucky if it gets there within a week... why? because the posties bag is full of junk mail which is getting priority over real letters...

privacy is a right of every 1 and GMail is discarding it, because they claim you signed up to it...but if you dont agree you cant access your email, yay google......
im pretty sure thats blackmail...

rant over :p

mcd023 02/03/2012 12:34 PM
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that was absolutely hilarious! "When a person loves their Gmail very much, the two of them get together and....an ad is born." "EEEEWWWW" XD

computernerdforlife 02/03/2012 12:45 PM
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Stick to Windows.

back_by_demand 02/03/2012 12:51 PM
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Hilarious, the "MS is just a hypocrit, they do it too" comments and completely ignoring that they just admited that they know they are spied on, but obviously don't care
...
Is Google reading my mail?

Quote :No, but automatic scanning and filtering technology is at the heart of Gmail. Gmail scans and processes all messages using fully automated systems in order to do useful and innovative stuff like filter spam, detect viruses and malware, show relevant ads, and develop and deliver new features across your Google experience. Priority Inbox, spell checking, forwarding, auto-responding, looking for the words bomb, allah, president before alerting the secret service, automatic saving and sorting, and converting URLs to clickable links are just a few of the many features that use this kind of automatic processing.

Fixed tha for ya!

Anonymous 02/03/2012 1:00 AM
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Do they have Clippy fighting GoogleMan? That I would watch.

Razor512 02/03/2012 1:31 AM
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the only profitable thing they can do is what they have been doing all along, scanning mail in order to show ads.

most likely what will happen will be that the gmail style ads may influence the google ads that you get on other sites that use google ads.

Other than that most likely the info that will be shared between services may be things like form data. like how when you make a gmail account, you automatically have a google docs, maps,unactivated shopping and unactivated youtube account. this may allow them to spread it to more services.

zybch 02/03/2012 2:12 AM
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mrmaia :
Google just told exactly what Microsoft was wanting them to do.I don't like MSFT's hypocrisy on the issue, but such campaigns can indeed alert people that their online privacy is not private at all.



What hypocracy? The main point of the don't-trust-google ads, at least the gmail section, was that google scan ALL of your emails and use keywords found within to target ads at you. MS's mail services don't do this.

Google is trying to do the same as apple did with the 'other cell phones have attenuation problems too" FUD to take attention away from the fact that it was their stupid design problems (which they knew about prior) that made their jesus-phone far more suseptable to being 'held wrong' than any other company's handsets.

Google are trying to move the attention to non/barely-related stuff that their email scanning practices also involve rather than just fessing up and admitting that, yes, they do serve up ads based on your private correspondance.
That this scanning now takes place over EVERY google product should be a bit worrying to a lot of people.
Its on the record that MS only retains any user history data for 3 months, google keep it in perpetuity.

Manos 02/03/2012 4:03 AM
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Athlon76 :
I don't care what Google does. NOTHING would make me switch to Office for email.




Its ignorance without the bliss. I see people on twitter protesting about internet freedom etc but I mean.. When you dont give a flying fuck about the obvious harashment you are worth every bit of whats coming to you. Then again noone cared when Google were stealing over wifi and their cars of streetview their private data so why care now?

Its sad really. Then again you can stick with seeing it just the Gmal vs Office and stick with gmail!? bad days are coming im telling you >.

face-plants 02/03/2012 6:27 AM
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Nothing new IMO. Google has been data mining from the very start. The only thing I hope comes from all this new attention on the subject is that more people will be aware that there really is no such thing as true anonymity for 99% of internet users. (Yes, I'm putting the Tor and proxy users under the 1% category)

Hazbot 02/03/2012 6:29 AM
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Microsoft! What the hell?

madooo12 02/03/2012 6:42 AM
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for all the non-belivers who gave me thumbs down

https://www.google.com/search?clien [...] .osb&cad=b

see the number of results before 9/2011

jojesa 02/03/2012 6:43 AM
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I was concerned at first (I hate in your face pop-ups or flash ads) but I don't mind Gmail ads, if they appear on the side and does not interfere with the message. I got a couple of deals from those ads so they might come handy one day.

elcentral 02/03/2012 10:52 AM
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Gmail man got fired from gmail 2 month after, making him join up on a new prodgect under ground, he lost his mail name and instead renamed himself to Gman the end! or is it?

neon871 02/03/2012 12:17 PM
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krowbar :
So, since it's Google, people are ok with them scanning their emails?I really don't understand all this google 'love'.


Google is android, YouTube, FaceBook and and much more. The next step for Google is to scan your phone calls for key words.............oh wait the Government already does that!