We absolutely respect user privacy, Microsoft boss says. Microsoft boss Terry Myerson published a blog post a few hours ago to dismiss suggestions that the company could be spying on its Windows 10 users via email, but in a separate interview, the man who is now in charge of the operating system unit in Redmond says it's hard to win back customer trust.
Myerson told CNN Money that one of the biggest problems in convincing users that their privacy is not being violated in Windows 10 is that the operating system needs access to personal information in order to fully utilize its potential.
Cortana, for example, can only work if it has access to location and can be improved with personalized recommendations and suggestions based on what it can learn from monitoring users' daily lives and activities.
To illustrate how difficult it really is to handle personal data these days, Myerson pointed to the mail system built into Windows 10. In order for users to receive their emails on their desktop computers, Microsoft would obviously have to gain access to the account, so the username and password would have to be provided in the Mail app.
The email example
And yet, Myerson says that no one at Microsoft has access to any email and everything is completely secure. But how will he convince users that nothing is happening, given that they know that the company needs to access their email account to deliver new messages to them?
“We don’t read emails , but we have custody of your email,” he said. “How do you separate those two things?”
Speaking about trust and how Microsoft is trying to earn it, Myerson explained that no other company works so closely with its users and every suggestion received is analyzed by the relevant team.
“Trust is a key pillar of our “More Personal Computing” vision, and we know we have to earn it. I assure you that no other company is more committed, more transparent, and more responsive to its customers on this important issue than we are.”
Despite Microsoft's assurances that users' privacy is fully protected, many are still concerned that their personal information could be leaked from their computers. Microsoft says that only anonymous reports of device data are collected, and what's more, everything is encrypted and stored on secure servers.
