The original complaint to TRUSTe can be read on this site at Complaint filed with TRUSTe and TRUSTe’s preliminary response was also published here.
TRUSTe has since provided Microsoft’s reply. I reproduce here their response and my further query to TRUSTe whether or not this response is in fact a willful lie or possibly a reflection of massively broken Microsoft technology. If there is some other possible interpretation, we await with baited breath to set the record straight. Until then, Microsoft is demonstrating a shocking willingness to at best mislead and possibly intentionally lie to the supposed guarantor of web privacy, TRUSTe.
These are the verbatim communications:
Glenn Caleval replied to TRUSTe:
It may be paranoia, but I flat out do not believe Microsoft.
I again tried to send an email message to cale...@hotmail.com.
It was returned as undeliverable with the following output:
550 Requested action not taken: mailbox unavailable 550 5.1.1 <cale...@hotmail.com>… User unknown
I invite TRUSTe to try to send a message to that account.
I have tried that account repeatedly for six months. If Microsoft is being honest about deleting unused accounts, can you encourage them to specify what time period do they consider to be sufficient to trigger erasure of the account?
When I communicated with Microsoft they were quite clear that they did NOT delete accounts and that once an account had been registered it could never again be re-registered. The response they have provided you is entirely the opposite. A specific inactive time period is a necessary requisite for transparent and clear privacy practice.
As the trusted third party I would invite TRUSTe to ask Microsoft to have the current owner of cale...@hotmail.com to communicate directly with TRUSTe to confirm that the account cale...@hotmail.com has become inactive due to something they have done and not due to Microsoft sitting on an unused email account.
Sincerely, this is coming down to a pretty basic test whether or not Microsoft is flat out telling lies or has some reasonable explanation why a “not-inactive” email account returns as undeliverable due to user unknown errors — error messages returned by their own servers.
Either their technology is very severely broken or the account really is “User unknown.”
They might be able to have it both ways, but I think it a reasonable request for an explanation.
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comp...@truste.org wrote:
Dear Glenn Caleval:
Thank you for the recent Watchdog complaint you submitted against www.live.com. The Web site has cooperated with TRUSTe and has responded to your complaint as indicated below.
If you feel that there are still unresolved issues within the scope of TRUSTe’s program, please respond with your detailed comments to comp...@truste.org within 5 businesses days of the date of this email. It is important that you provide as much detail as possible so we can properly evaluate the issue. If TRUSTe does not receive your comments by 10/05/2009, we will consider this Watchdog closed.
TRUSTe appreciates your interest in privacy and we value input from consumers like you. Participation from Internet users like you, make it possible for us to continue to provide an effective privacy program for the Internet community. If you would like to receive the TRUSTe Privacy Watchdog newsletter, which includes definitions, alerts and protective measures you can take to feel more confident online, please sign up on http://www.truste.org/consumers/index.php.
TRUSTe appreciates your interest in privacy and we value input from consumers like you.
If you consider the complaint resolved, please take 2 minutes to fill out our Watchdog Customer Satisfaction survey. Your information will be aggregated and kept confidential. This survey and all its questions are voluntary. Please view and answer the survey at http://www.truste.com/polls/2009_wd_consumer.
Participation from Internet users like you makes it possible for us to continue to provide privacy assistance to the Internet community.
Sincerely,
TRUSTe Compliance Team
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[response from Licensee]:
I have confirmation that cale...@hotmail.com<mailto:cale...@hotmail.com> belongs to another Microsoft customer. Hotmail accounts automatically deleted if not used for a long period of time leaving accounts to be reused by others after the reclamation process. We cannot confirm if Mr. Caleval owned the account at one time, but we have confirmed that he is not the current owner.
Please let us know if we can do anything further to assist on this complaint.
