What does Microsoft do with my contacts list?

Entegy, I'm not so sure this can be classified as a run around.  I think the problem has been that those charged thus far with handling questions in this relatively new section/forum of the Microsoft empire aren't really given the proper tools to be able to go laterally to ask another section's employees to come over here and answer questions from a hardcase like me.  One must admit that I come on a little strong and with a lot of baggage dragging behind me in the way of maybe too much information dragging behind me.

And the two folks that have answered here have probably done the best they can and the only thing else they can do is go vertical up to their boss and then their boss can go lateral.  But the lateral movement, as in a request for someone with the right knowledge, hasn't happened yet.

At least, that's what I came up with between meetings today when I have had the chance to think about this place.

hpholm, your post made me realize that I had missed a rather important aspect of all this.  It might be a Microsoft page, but I realize now that it is very likely not Microsoft that wants access to my contacts, but that third-party -- another company altogether.

I am beginning to see that it won't be Microsoft that will be sending me email information about Windows 10 and Windows Insider, but another company.  Some reason I didn't pick up on that until I saw your post and that link sitting there all nice and cozy and waiting for me to click on it, which I did.  And if one searches all over that new site one won't find diddly squat about any honoring of Microsoft agreements.

I'll have to digest that a little bit more, but my gut feeling about that is Microsoft should place some information window in some catchy color that makes it clear that if we want those email notices that Microsoft was going on about on the previous page then we better be aware that we will be dealing with a non-Microsoft company and that Microsoft won't be responsible for what the third-party does with private information.

In other words, I think there is a lack of proper notification to people about what is really happening.  I think people assume all this is run by Microsoft, and I don't think it is.

I know that once in a while in the past I have seen companies state they want access to an address book or a contacts list or some such stuff and every time I immediately back out of whatever I was heading into.

I happen to believe that if I am going to allow a company access to any kind of address book I had better ask everyone in the book first.  It just seems like the right thing to do.

But I still think, at this writing, that maybe Microsoft needs to take some blame for not making it absolutely clear that if we want those email notifications we are going to be exposed to the rules of a new player and one that apparently doesn't play by the same rules as Microsoft.  That seems to be the problem in a nutshell.  --  "shell" What a strange word to pop up.  What jumps into my mind is the shell game.  We want those email notifications we are getting stuck under a new shell.

EDIT:  By the way, I was not polite and didn't thank all you folks for taking an interest in this discussion and posting your thoughts.  Very much appreciated everyone.  Thank you.

I don't know why you're getting the run around.

Nothing happens with the contact list you store in your Microsoft account. In fact, one of my Microsoft's marketing points is that unlike Google, your Outlook.com data is not used for advertising.

Your contacts are not sold or mined for advertising. It was Hotmail, the 90s inbox for everything, including having a contact list, and now it's there so you see how it easy it is to keep your information synced across devices, and maybe you'll buy an Office 365 licence because it's so easy..., then more Microsoft software... You see where this is going?

I believe Microsoft Support can see account data when a support request is opened, however as to whether there are technical barriers here, or that is just policy, I don't know.

As far as I understand, because Microsoft will be syncing your account data, it requires your consent, mainly being contact lists which Microsoft builds single contact cards in associate with your account, kinda like hiring Microsoft, Facebook, Linkedin etc, this doesn't give Microsoft access to email- sell data, but to compile this data, hence every application such as Facebook or any non Microsoft related product ask for this access. It may be why it is taking so long for Microsoft to answer directly because if you do enough research into the working of both windows 8 and windows 10, they are designed for those use to the IPAD and Android crowd who do not really think, but want it to work, Microsoft just makes it clear what it will be accessing as in what will it pull from your local system to comprise a full address book across all services. You can easily avoid this by disabling all advanced features and protection via registry, but then you might as well be running windows XP at that point.

I don't understand what is going through the minds of the employees that have seen this thread and haven't posted so much as a "We are looking for answers. Please wait.", but I am beginning to sense that we are once again viewing a situation where obfuscation will be used by the company to try and see if the questioner is going to give up.

Let me make something very clear, I will not give up.

If this has to go to snail mail and even if this has to be brought before law enforcement, I will get some answers.

I want to know what this company does with a person's contact list.  It's an easy question, unless you have something to hide.

For the time being I am confining my research to the Net, and so far I find that not too many people ask Microsoft why they warn us about being able to view our contact list.

Here is what Research Paper No. 2 contains:

• I suppose I should apologize because I wasn't using the Bing search engine, but you will see below that I tried various search methods.

Paper #2:

When I entered this  _ "contact list" "security" site:microsoft.com

This below caught my eye and became Research Paper No. 1, because I copied it.

http://www.microsoft.com/online/legal/v2/?docid=34

Then I tried this in a search engine _ "View your profile info and contact list" site:microsoft.com

I found this below, which was just one of two results.  The other being from 2013.  This one below was much more useful because I see a company employee responded and it seems that company employee is still with the company.

https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/onedrive/en-US/f00e7b47-fb0b-468f-ba6b-6e9efcd82537/how-to-skip-the-tcs-process-with-liveid-authentication?forum=messengerconnect

This is by design. Users need to know that they are granting your application permission to view some of their data.

Carl Hirschman

Wednesday, April 02, 2014 5:59 PM

Then I tried this in the Google search engine and received the following result:

No results found for "View your profile info and contact list" site:http://answers.microsoft.com.

Results for View your profile info and contact list site:http://answers.microsoft.com (without quotes):

So I continue to search and will stick with this thread for answers for about another week or so.  Then I turn to other methods.

And for those that might view me as a pest, I have a few words about that.

Security starts with common sense and when someone, no matter who that 'someone' is, warns me about something it is common sense to ask why the warning.

Now, of course, my email account is on a Microsoft server, so any employee could look at my contact list, whether that is legal or not.  I just have to take it on faith that Microsoft management has that under control.

But I see an actual warning about the company being able to view my contact list and I have to ask why.  That is common sense, no?

Plus, it has to do with respect.  My respect for the people on/in my contact list.  Do I just let any company view it without asking why?  No, that would not be very respectful.

And while we are on the subject of respect, I'd like a little respect aimed in my direction from some employee at this company.  That is, I'd like some answers.  And it is more than one answer that needs to be forthcoming from this company.

Please don't force me into going brick-and-mortar to get answers.  That gets expensive.