Microsoft – Page 2 – MichaelZimmer.org

Vista a Threat to Internet Freedom?

Posted by Michael Zimmeron February 7, 2007in Information Law & Policy, Internet

BBC columnist Bill Thompson warns readers that new DRM technology, especially that found in Vista, is damaging the freedoms that the Internet was based on: The freedom of expression that was once available to users of the Internet Protocol is…

Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Others to Address Human Rights Violations

Posted by Michael Zimmeron January 20, 2007in Information Ethics, Internet, Search Engines

An important press release came out this week regarding a coalition of Internet companies, IT providers, human rights organizations, and academics joining forces to address human rights violations enabled by technologies and practices by some of the member organizations, such…

Windows Live Local Virtual Earth and Privacy in Public

Posted by Michael Zimmeron December 4, 2006in Internet, Privacy2 Comments

A post on Slashdot recalls the discovery of an SUV filming the streets of San Francisco: Today as we were biking around our neighborhood in a small city we saw a strange vehicle slowly driving around. It appeared to be…

Microsoft Releases Guidelines for Customer Privacy

Posted by Michael Zimmeron October 21, 2006in Privacy, Values In Design2 Comments

Microsoft publicly released a 49-page internal document, called Microsoft’s Privacy Guidelines for Developing Software Products and Services outlining recommendations for both Micorsoft and other software developers to help them protect customer privacy when building applications that deal with sensitive information,…

Microsoft Collects Petabytes of (Personal?) Data

Posted by Michael Zimmeron October 14, 2006in Privacy2 Comments

In a New York Times article about the massive de-bugging effort Microsoft is undertaking to get their new Vista operating system released on time, mention is made that 450,000 users are testing the software, and that their computers are sending…

Amnesty Blasts Google, Microsoft, Yahoo

Posted by Michael Zimmeron July 21, 2006in Information Ethics, Search Engines

Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo have undermined the rights of Chinese to freedom of expression through their actions in China, according to Amnesty International."All three companies have, in one way or another, facilitated or colluded in the practice of censorship in…

Google, Microsoft and Others Establish Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum

Posted by Michael Zimmeron June 20, 2006in Internet, Privacy, Search Engines1 Comment

A group of twelve notable and diverse U.S. companies are joining forces to create a Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum to study the implications and explore support for comprehensive federal consumer privacy legislation. Google, one of the signatories, has posted the…

Google Joins NSA’s Other Northwest Neighbors

Posted by Michael Zimmeron June 14, 2006in Internet, Privacy, Search Engines2 Comments

The NY Times reports that Google has built a "computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky" on the Oregon-Washington border. Yahoo and Microsoft both have large processing centers about…

Don’t be Hypocritical: Google Upset at MSFT’s Default Browser

Posted by Michael Zimmeron May 1, 2006in Information Ethics, Internet4 Comments

According to the New York Times, Google has been expressing concerns about the fact that Internet Explorer 7’s search box will ship with Microsoft’s MSN Search as the default search engine: Google, which only recently began beefing up its lobbying…

Congress v. IT Companies re: China

Posted by Michael Zimmeron February 15, 2006in Information Ethics, Internet, Search Engines

Nathan Weinberghas posted some excellent excerpts form today's congressional hearings with various IT companies regarding thier actions in China. Here are some highlights: The Associated Press: Rep. Tom Lantos, ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee, told the company officials…