Untold Notes
Privacy and Skype/Microsoft teams…what you should be aware of
I just read an interesting piece in the german press. Basically, the privacy/data protection officer of Berlin city advised schools, businesses and the city’s administration against using many public video-conferencing systems.
It based its decision on recent technical findings what were published in the german press and on analyzing the GDPR situation.
And Microsoft is now flexing its legal muscle. This story will unfold in the coming weeks, months, years I guess.
But what it is all about ? Among all the issues, I am looking at one in particular.
Microsofot’s privacy statement, it is considered by the Stiftung Warentest who compared 20 videoconferencing systems recently, I am quoting :
« The texts (…) show no serious concern with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). «
Now, one could say that this is just paperwork…but there is much more.
Microsoft is sending User IDs to the Adobe Experience Cloud, Marketo (an Adobe subsidiary), Google Ads and Scorecardresearch.
The data streams look like remarketing tags.
Naturally, cookies are used as well as other means to identify.
Now this means that when a web-conference is started, all members are identified, their web profiles are updated if their devices or identities are known.
Google reserves the right to use that data for other advertising clients.
This ought to get everyone thinking about using such software and is an argument for using Sametime whose functioning is based – and has always been – on confidentiality and security
