Last updated: September 2009
Microsoft is
committed to protecting your privacy, while delivering software that brings
you the performance, power, and convenience you desire in your personal
computing. This privacy statement explains many of the data collection and
use practices of Microsoft Reputation Services RC (“MRS”).
This is a preliminary disclosure that focuses on features that
communicate with the Internet and is not intended to be an exhaustive list.
It does not apply to other online or offline Microsoft sites, products, or
services.
MRS is a
web-service that delivers categorization information about URLs.
MRS includes the Feedback and Error Reporting site at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/mrs/.
Collection and Use of Your Information
The information
we collect from you will be used by Microsoft and its controlled
subsidiaries and affiliates to enable the features you are using and provide
the service(s) or carry out the transaction(s) you have requested or
authorized. It may also be used to analyze and improve Microsoft
products and services.
With your
consent, we may occasionally request your feedback, invite you to
participate in surveys, or send you promotional mailings to inform you of
other products or services available from Microsoft and its affiliates.
In order to
offer you a more consistent and personalized experience in your interactions
with Microsoft, information collected through one Microsoft service may be
combined with information obtained through other Microsoft services. We may
also supplement the information we collect with information obtained from
other companies. For example, we may use services from other companies that
enable us to derive a general geographic area based on your IP address in
order to customize certain services to your geographic area.
Except as
described in this statement, personal information you provide will not be
transferred to third parties without your consent. We occasionally hire
other companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as
packaging, sending and delivering purchases and other mailings, answering
customer questions about products or services, processing event
registration, or performing statistical analysis of our services. We will
only provide those companies the personal information they need to deliver
the service, and they are prohibited from using that information for any
other purpose.
Microsoft may
access or disclose information about you, including the content of your
communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful
requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft
or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies
governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that
such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of
Microsoft employees, customers, or the public. We may also disclose personal
information as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of
assets.
Information
that is collected by or sent to Microsoft by MRS may be stored and processed
in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its
affiliates, subsidiaries, or service providers maintain facilities.
Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S.
Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data
from the European Union, the European Economic Area, and Switzerland.
Collection and Use of Information about
Your Computer
When you use
software with Internet-enabled features, information about your computer
("standard computer information") is sent to the Web sites you visit and
online services you use. Microsoft uses standard computer information to
provide you Internet-enabled services, to help improve our products and
services, and for statistical analysis. Standard computer information
typically includes information such as your IP address, operating system
version, browser version, and regional and language settings. In some cases,
standard computer information may also include hardware ID, which indicates
the device manufacturer, device name, and version. If a particular feature
or service sends information to Microsoft, standard computer information
will be sent as well.
The privacy
details for each MRS feature, software or service listed in this privacy
statement describe what additional information is collected and how it is
used.
Security of your information
Microsoft is
committed to helping protect the security of your information. We use a
variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your
information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we
store the information you provide on computer systems with limited access,
which are located in controlled facilities.
Changes to this privacy statement
We will
occasionally update this privacy statement to reflect changes in our
products, services, and customer feedback. When we post changes, we will
revise the "last updated" date at the top of this statement. If there are
material changes to this statement or in how Microsoft will use your
personal information, we will notify you either by posting a notice of such
changes prior to implementing the change or by directly sending you a
notification. We encourage you to periodically review this statement to be
informed of how Microsoft is protecting your information.
For More Information
Microsoft
welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you have
questions about this statement or believe that we have not adhered to it,
please contact us at
secwish@microsoft.com.
Solutions Accelerators Team
Microsoft Corporation
One Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
USA
Specific features
The remainder of this document will
address the following specific features:
Feedback and
Error Reporting Portal
What This Feature Does:
The Feedback and Error Reporting Portal (the “Portal”) at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/mrs/
allows you to send your feedback to Microsoft. Feedback includes
suggested categories for a given URL and comments about the report that may
be helpful for Microsoft to better understand your concerns or errors that
you may have encountered.
Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:
The Portal will ask you for the full URL being escalated, any suggested
categories you would like to send to Microsoft, and any additional comments
you may have (“Feedback Reports”).
In addition, in the case that you are the registered site owner, your
name and email address will also be collected.
We may collect information about your visit to the Portal. For example, we
may use Web site analytics tools to retrieve information from your browser,
including the site you came from, the search engine(s) and the keywords you
used to find our Portal, the pages you view within the Portal, your browser
add-ons, and your browser's width and height.
We may use cookies on this Portal to enable you to sign in to our services
or to help personalize the Portal.
A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a
Web server. Cookies contain information that can later be read by a Web
server in the domain that issued the cookie to you. Cookies cannot be used
to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. One of the primary
purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time.
For example, if you personalize a Web page, or navigate within a site, a
cookie helps the site to recall your specific information on subsequent
visits. This simplifies the process of delivering relevant content, eases
site navigation, and so on. When you return to the Web site, the information
you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the site's
features that you customized.
You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers
automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser
setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you are using Internet
Explorer, search for “Cookies” in the Help menu to find detailed
instructions. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to use
interactive features of this or other Web sites that depend on cookies.
Pages on this Portal may contain electronic images known as Web beacons -
sometimes called single-pixel gifs - that may be used to assist in
delivering cookies, to allow us to count users who have visited those pages,
and to deliver co-branded services.
Microsoft may also employ Web beacons from third parties in order to help us
compile aggregated statistics and determine the effectiveness of our
promotional campaigns or other operations of our sites. We prohibit Web
beacons on our sites from being used by third parties to collect or access
your personal information.
We may work with other companies that advertise on our sites to place Web
beacons on their sites in order to allow us to develop statistics on how
often clicking on an advertisement on a Microsoft site results in a purchase
or other action on the advertiser's site.
Use of Information:
These Feedback Reports help Microsoft researchers and third-party partner
companies (“Microsoft Partners”) to discover potential inaccuracies and/or
to optimize the reputation delivered to customers.
The Feedback Reports may also be used for testing or other statistical or
analytical purposes, trending, and anti-malware definition generation
including transmission to Microsoft Partners that have agreed to assist
Microsoft in data analysis. “Data analysis” may include but is not
limited to, categorization of URL content and malware identification.
Microsoft may send full URL strings to Microsoft Partners but will first
filter or restrict those URL strings to remove personal
information. Microsoft Partners use these redacted URL strings to improve
the service by augmenting the Microsoft and/or Microsoft Partners’ filtering
database(s).
If you provide an e-mail address, Microsoft may use it to contact you if
further information or clarification is needed to understand your request.
All other information collected may be used for statistical analysis and to
improve this and other Microsoft and Microsoft partner products and
services, but will not be used to identify or contact you.
Choice/Control:
You may choose whether or not to use the Feedback and Error Reporting Portal
feature, and if so, what information to send to Microsoft.
Telemetry
What This Feature Does:
Microsoft receives telemetry from each feature that uses MRS for URL
categorization. This information is stored by Microsoft and analyzed to help
identify patterns and improve precision and efficiency of URL
categorization. In addition, Microsoft uses this analyzed information to
prioritize URLs for categorization by Microsoft and Microsoft Partners. The
information collected is not used to identify or contact you.
Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:
By enabling a feature that utilizes MRS, reports are collected from you by
Microsoft which include additional data such as full URL strings, the time
the URL was queried, and other aggregated statistics.
Clients transfer to Microsoft the full URL string, local list of URL
category overrides, and several statistical counters, as well as a machine
identifier. The machine identifier is used to identify the version and
product connecting to MRS and does not include any customer or personal
information. Note that HTTPS URLs are truncated, such that customers send
only the hostname portion of the URL string to MRS, along with a one-way
hash of the full URL string that allows us to distinguish between unique
URLs without access to the full URL string.
Reports may inadvertently contain personal information. To the extent that
any personal information is included in a report, Microsoft does not use the
information to identify you or contact you. To help protect your
privacy, reports that are sent to Microsoft over an encrypted channel.
In order to help provide and continuously improve data quality, MRS may
query Microsoft Partners for reputation information, or send them redacted
URL strings for categorization purposes. MRS does not send Microsoft
Partners unique identifiers representing you or your end-users associated
with the URLs.
Use of Information:
These reports help Microsoft researchers and Microsoft Partners discover
inaccuracies and optimize reputation delivered to customers.
The reports may also be used for statistical or other testing or analytical
purposes, trending, and anti-malware definition generation including
transmission to Microsoft Partners that have agreed to assist Microsoft in
data analysis. Microsoft may send full URL strings to Microsoft
Partners but will first filter or restrict those URL strings to remove
personal information. Microsoft Partners use these redacted URL strings to
improve the service by augmenting the Microsoft and/or Microsoft Partners’
filtering database(s).
Choice/Control:
Collection of telemetry is tied to the enabling and disabling of features
that utilize MRS. See your product or service documentation to learn more
about how to control its interaction with MRS.
