Microsoft's New 'Data Dignity' Team Could Help Users Control Their Personal Data (zdnet.com) 33
Microsoft is staffing up a new 'Data Dignity' team in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. The team is researching ways to give users more control of their personal data, possibly even one day enabling them to buy and sell it to third-party entities. From a report: Microsoft has run afoul of privacy mavens, especially as a result of its collection of data in the name of telemetry with Windows 10, and more recently, for using human contractors to transcribe Skype conversations. An initiative like Data Dignity could further the company's quest to make itself look like a champion of users' privacy (at least in theory). I knew Microsoft had been investigating ways to give users more control of their own data after I unearthed some information about the company's "Project Bali" earlier this year.
Bali, a Microsoft Research incubation project that seemingly was in private testing as of January, is a "new personal data bank which puts users in control of all data collected about them." The idea is to give usrs a way to store, visualize, manage, control, share and monetize the data, according to the "About" page for the project, which Microsoft has since hidden. This week, The New York Times ran an interactive feature about Jaron Lanier that is focused on data privacy. Lanier is a virtual-reality pioneer and a chief scientist at Microsoft.
Bali, a Microsoft Research incubation project that seemingly was in private testing as of January, is a "new personal data bank which puts users in control of all data collected about them." The idea is to give usrs a way to store, visualize, manage, control, share and monetize the data, according to the "About" page for the project, which Microsoft has since hidden. This week, The New York Times ran an interactive feature about Jaron Lanier that is focused on data privacy. Lanier is a virtual-reality pioneer and a chief scientist at Microsoft.
trust (Score:5, Interesting)
And why should we trust MS to do with our data what they claim they are doing with our data?
Re: (Score:2)
Trust and Microsoft are strange bedfellows. They are are rare as hens teeth IMHO.
I have my own "Data Dignity" team (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
What I need is for Microsoft to stop having any control over my data.
I love how win10 lets me control my PC more (Score:1)
Who would have thought MS would save us?! (Score:1)
Not me and I still don't think that. Law my friend. The market cannot solve this problem.
Re: (Score:1)
The law is subject to the same market forces as any other business.
Where's the Delete (Score:2)
The filthy little slimy bastards, control your data but they own it and you can not fucking delete it. What a pack of scummy cunts, you want to control your data, your going to have to do it through government regulation right after the too big to fail corporations are broken up ie they only pretend to allow you to control your information.
wat (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft is staffing up a new 'Data Dignity' team in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. The team is researching ways to give users more control of their personal data, possibly even one day enabling them to buy and sell it to third-party entities.
The way this is written, it looks like users will have to buy their own personal data. If that's Microsoft's idea of dignity (which sounds about right) they can stuff it up sideways.
Re: (Score:2)
Skinner: I want you to work up something for my latest frozen food concept: Gusteau's Corn Puppies. They're like corn dogs, only smaller. Bite size.
Francois: What are corn dogs?
Skinner: Cheap sausages dipped in batter and deep fried. You know, American. Whip something up. Maybe Gusteau in overalls and Huckleberry Tom hat.
Francois: Or as a big ear of corn in doggie make-up.
Skinner: Y-yes. But, please, with dignity.
Also: Illegal under data protection laws. (Score:1)
The EU, for example, will tear them a new one. Right next to the other half dozen smaller ones from the last times.
I have an idea of how it transpired (Score:1)
"Because we value user privacy, from now on, users can choose themselves what data they share with us", said Darth Nadella in our interview.
"They will have three options to set what level of helpful data sharing they feel comfortable with."
"Option 1 will share all data, including all data generated by other family members and all data we can siphon off nearby wireless networks. This will improve the user experience the most, and make sure that we can improve our platform to best suit an individual's needs."
Data dignity (Score:2)
Data dignity reminds me of "corpse dignity", meaning that our privacy is stone cold dead, and mortician promises to handle its dead cold husk without offending sensibilities of people who were still around when it was alive.
Will it miss the "none" option? (Score:1)
And the "I don't want any part of your batshit insane world." suboption.
Otherwise I see no reason to do business with this dying dinosaur. (The bloat is internal putrefaction gases.)
Get robbed with dignity now! (Score:2)
For anybody a bit smarter, this is basically adding insult to injury.
How about zero? (Score:3)
That's the amount of personal data Microsoft, or any company, should be allowed to use/sell/whatever without the user's express permission.
but First! (Score:2)
Tell us Microsoft how we can control our "data" while you are in control of it first?
The very definition of using a 3rd party to control your data means no control!
Trust is easy to lose hard to win (Score:4, Insightful)
I really hope this is not all just smoke and mirrors and just pretending to give the user control. Since their primary business is not analyzing user data (unlike Google's) there's a chance this is all legit. OTOH, they've been going in the opposite direction (Google-level user spying) since they released Windows 10 I'm skeptical
Re: (Score:2)
What's always bugged me about telemetry is that most users simply use the default settings and will never change anything, so if you offer people the ability to opt-out, hardly anyone will. Why does telemetry need to be mandatory?
The fact that people are ultimately forced into the system is all the proof you need that it can't ever be trusted.
Re: (Score:2)
The first thing that should be done... (Score:2)
... The team is researching ways to give users more control of their personal data, possibly even one day enabling them to buy and sell it to third-party entities. ...
This wording implies that Microsoft controls the data and is "allowing" the users to access their own data and maybe, just maybe even allow the users to be able to buy and sell their own data.
The friggin arrogance of the data harvesting industry is astounding.
It's a trap! (Score:2)
It's a trap!
Want to 'help', MS? DON'T COLLECT ANY DATA! (Score:2)
Also, same goes for every other gods-be-damned nosy-ass company and government on the planet. Fuck off with your Surveillance State bullshit, you assholes.
This should start with ... (Score:2)
a nice, big, easy to find button that stops ALL collection and sharing of ANY data, the effects of this button will not be reset by the next system update, any new capabilities should take note of this and also become 'NO'. If someone then wants to customise it and selectively enable sharing of some things then that is up to them. This works well with the EU's GDPR.
However: I cannot see this happening. The converse: allowing sharing of everything for all purposes will always be easy.
Corporate dignity (Score:2)
That'd be corporate dignity, rather than human dignity. Just as corporations & people just aren't the same thing no matter how often some idiots say they are.
What remains to be discovered is what exactly this corporate dignity thing is.
trust Microsoft ??? (Score:2)
The basis of security is trust.
Microsoft has always failed the trust test.
We do not need a forked up corporation to help us take back our own data.
We have to take back what is ours,
then we have to take back the commons,
both of which corporations have taken as their right to plunder.
Total BS (Score:3)
Until senior managers face real prison time, share holders face a loss of shares nothing will actually change.
Put the board of directors in prison for 5-10 years, things will change
Take 10% of the share holdings of the top 100 share holders and things will change
Fines are just a cost of doing business.
And of course the biggest problem is the government, they don't actually want change either, because they want a data set they can swoop in and collect.
Our program spreads so many lies about you (Score:2)
that no one can identify the truth.
Google (Score:1)
>. / is angry at bad ol' Micro$oft
>About privacy
>When Google knows much more, about much more people and they are just as corrupt and evil
Muh Android
Muh Do No Evul
Muh Fuck MSFT
Are you totally shitting me? (Score:1)