I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m wondering if Microsoft even has a clue anymore. They seem lost between being jealous of Google and trying to catch up (innovation-wise) with Apple. <\/p>\n
Now comes news that, without notification, and without being included in the user agreement, Microsoft recycles usernames which haven\u2019t been used in 270 days, thus exposing the previous owner\u2019s sensitive emails and data to the new user. Yahoo has done the same thing, but at least they warned their users about it before recycling their accounts. Google never recycles usernames or accounts.<\/p>\n
From Windows 8 to its failed cell phones, to its slow-selling iPad clone \u201cSurface\u201d, to its unfathomable neglect of users relying on its Microsoft Security Essentials (Windows Defender in Windows 8) antivirus program, Microsoft not only seems to be lost, but unaware of how all this appears to the public. <\/p>\n
Our question today: Does Microsoft even have a clue anymore?<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the article about the recycling of Hotmail, Live, MSN, and Outlook accounts from Mashable.com:<\/p>\n
Microsoft is recycling inactive email accounts for its Outlook, Hotmail and Live services, potentially exposing users to previous owners’ private information, according to a new report posted by Dutch website Webwereld.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe software giant’s services agreement informs users that they must periodically log in to their Outlook, Hotmail or Windows Live ID accounts to keep them active. It reads:<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n The Microsoft branded services require that you sign in to your Microsoft account periodically, at a minimum of every 270 days, to keep the Microsoft branded services portion of the services active, unless provided otherwise in an offer for a paid portion of the services. If you fail to sign in during this period, we may cancel your access to the Microsoft branded services. If the Microsoft branded services are cancelled due to your failure to sign in, your data may be permanently deleted from our servers.<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n The agreement doesn’t specify whether accounts would then be recycled, but Microsoft confirmed this to Webwereld and PCWorld, saying “The email account is automatically queued for deletion from our servers. Then, after a total of 360 days, the email account name is made available again.” Mashable reached out to Microsoft, but the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n Yahoo has also come under fire for recycling email addresses, but the company warns users about this policy in its terms of service\u2026\u201d<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n Read more here<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/font><\/p>\n <\/font><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don\u2019t know about you, but I\u2019m wondering if Microsoft even has a clue anymore. They seem lost between being jealous of Google and trying to catch up (innovation-wise) with Apple. Now comes news that, without notification, and without being included in the user agreement, Microsoft recycles usernames which haven\u2019t been used in 270 days, thus exposing the\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1426,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}