In an effort to make users aware and be reminded of changes that is about to take place soon, Microsoft has started sending out notification emails regarding their updated Services Agreement and Privacy Statement, which will take effect on August 1.
Microsoft already put out an earlier blog post this month, stating that they’re making changes again to “further simplify the terms and policies for our customers”. In the post, Horacio Gutiérrez, Microsoft’s Deputy General Counsel & Corporate VP, wrote:
The Microsoft Services Agreement will now expand to cover most of Microsoft’s consumer services, including Bing, Cortana, Microsoft account, OneDrive, Outlook.com, Skype and Xbox Live. A full list of products covered by this update to our terms of use can be found here. The Privacy Statement is also being refreshed and restructured, reducing redundancies and providing a singular, straightforward resource for understanding Microsoft’s commitments for protecting individual privacy with these services, and will also cover new technologies like the forthcoming Windows 10.
This round of changes are guided by three key principles: simplicity, user privacy, and transparency in communication. Below are the highlighted changes based on these:
Below are useful links you, dear Reader, may want to explore:
- Complete list of products, apps, and services covered by the Service Agreement
- Microsoft Service Agreement FAQ
- Microsoft Privacy Dashboard
- Microsoft Privacy Statement (full)
- Microsoft Service Agreement (full)
Jovi Umawing
You said “August 1st, seven days from now” in the article. I suspect you meant July 1st.
Hi, thanks for pointing this out. The changes will take affect August 1, not seven days from now, we’ve updated the blog to correct this. Thanks!
All that from M$ is “subject to change” when their lawyers are asked to modify the language – for example, their previous “commitment” to “Do Not Track” was recently reversed, likely for “marketing” reasons. So I don’t expect (or believe) any of their new “commitments/pledges” will carry any more weight than that one did,