Microsoft pledges not to scan users' email as a way to tailor advertising, according to Tim O'Brien, Microsoft senior director of platform strategy. Speaking at the SaaSCon 2010 conference in Santa Clara, Calif., this week, O’Brien told the audience that Microsoft has a big responsibility in maintaining users' data as part of the company's cloud-hosted applications such as Hotmail (via Network World).  Microsoft will do some data collecting - such as gender, age, and preferences - but it will not provide ads based on data directly traceable to a particular user, he said.

Touchy About Email

O'Brien touched upon an interesting dynamic that became very apparent when Google rolled out its social networking site, Buzz, in February. Namely, that people can get very touchy about their email, whereas other forms of online behavior - such as ad targeting while web surfacing - do not carry the same privacy expectations. Google, of course, has been targeting people based on the content of their Gmails since it first introduced the service - a boundary that at the time seemed controversial but turned out to be accepted.

Perhaps that is why Google overplayed its hand with its first introduction of Buzz in February. It came with a feature that atomically seeded an individual's network based on his or her most used Gmail contacts. Essentially, that person's email contacts were open to others in the network, until that person opted out of the service.

At the very least, if Google hadn’t tweaked the privacy policy, it could have easily led to some awkward moments, Michael Sutton, VP of security research at Zscaler, told the E-Commerce Times. "I can see a scenario is which someone's network includes an ex-girlfriend - someone your wife might not appreciate having there."