Microsoft looks to capitalize on Google privacy controversy

{mosads}The ad promotes Microsoft’s Hotmail, Bing, Office and Internet Explorer.

For its description of Hotmail, the company writes, “Join the hundreds of millions of people who enjoy not worrying about the content of their private emails being used to serve ads.”

Google has come under fire since it announced last week it will consolidate the privacy policies of its various services into a single document. 

The change allows Google to share user information between its services. Users could begin seeing advertisements in Gmail based on videos they watched on YouTube, for example. 

The company says the change makes its privacy policy easier to understand and will help it tailor search results to individual users. Google officials note that users can still adjust their privacy settings.

But consumers and lawmakers have expressed alarm at the detailed information Google will be able to collect on its users. 

“We don’t make judgments about other people’s policies or controls,” Betsy Masiello, policy manager at Google, wrote in a blog post. “But our industry-leading Privacy Dashboard, Ads Preferences Manager and data liberation efforts enable you to understand and control the information we collect and how we use it—and we’ve simplified our privacy policy to make it easier to understand. Microsoft has no data liberation effort or Dashboard-like hub for users.”

According to Microsoft’s privacy policy, the company also has the authority to combine user data from across its various services.

“In order to offer you a more consistent and personalized experience in your interactions with Microsoft, information collected through one Microsoft service may be combined with information obtained through other Microsoft services,” the privacy policy states. “We may also supplement the information we collect with information obtained from other companies.”

–Updated at 2:38 p.m.