Ask HN: Is Microsoft preferable, from a privacy point of view, to Google?

I'm GUESSING that M$ may be the better bet but suggest that we should limit our contacts with both. https://www.ecosia.org/search?q=microsoft+privacy+vs+google+... NOTE that I used a privacy friendly engine to do the search!

I think let's start with comparing what generates money for Google and Microsoft

I feel somewhat more that I'm a customer of Microsoft's and that they've demonstrated (through their shift to open source, through their "Windows Services for Linux") that they're more user oriented.

Google has a long-standing history of pretty much ignoring any and all user feedback; and I don't feel that I'm a customer of theirs, but a data-point to be fed to the advertising agencies who are their actual customers.

From a privacy viewpoint, both are horrendous. But since I'm already an office 365 subscriber, and because of the other reasons I mentioned, I'd give a few more points to Microsoft.

I have shared edge history enabled, but may eventually turn it off or even switch back to firefox. I havent' decided.

Between the Snowden revelations, Google and Facebook I pretty much feel that the privacy ship has sailed.

For the sake of discussion, I think it's worth throwing Amazon in the ring.

Microsoft has less important data than Google. Most people use Gmail/Google for personal life, maybe MS email/calendars for work life which is not particularly sensitive data.

> Microsoft may be seen as less privacy-invading than Google or, alternatively, scolded for all the ads, Cortana being creepy, them pushing everyone towards Bing, and requiring internet connectivity for playing simple games that used to come with Windows for free.

Showing ads in Windows doesn't mean they're personalized to you or based on any data. Cortana being creepy?? MS wants to push their own search engine, really??

Bigger picture, Microsoft's business model has historically never been reliant on ads. I don't see why they would move into collecting data when they have no need to and there is so much cultural backlash against it.

For me, it’s about transparency. I can see and inspect the raw data that’s sent to Microsoft. I can see only a dumbed down dashboard of what is sent to Google.

I started moving away from google services to microsoft ones, for this same reason(and I used to be a google fanboy):

Edge instead of chrome

Outlook online instead of gmail

Ms todo and OneNote instead of keep

OneDrive instead of gdrive

Google manipulate your data to sell your eyeballs, everywhere.

Microsoft manipulate your data to better design products, and sell your eyeballs in very select space. They don't treat their enterprise customers like their home users, that's for sure. Enterprise have a whole different experience.

Azure, and Microsoft 365 also do a much better job of making compliance so much more simple when initially integrating into your organization. There's almost too many portals for managing everything, but at least you can manage it.

We use both M365/Azure and G-Suite, and if given the choice to keep one, as the poor guy at the top of maintaining both, I'd keep Microsoft in a heartbeat.

There's a third possibility, missing from the question: "Neither of them are ok from a privacy point of view".

Not sure if that's the case here, but it's worth considering.

If Microsoft invented a pill that cures migraine, they would sell it for $$$.

If google invented a pill that cures migraine they would sell it for only $.

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But 10 years later someone would notice that the pills contain a small device that record everything that happens in your body and sent it to google. At the time the pills were created google had no idea what to do with this data, but now somehow they have become the world's biggest pharma. Nobody knows how...

And when confronted, google would see absolutely no problem with what they have done. They would maybe receive a €10.000 fine in germany and then go on.

Some people would start injecting Google Body devices ™, and someone would publish and article on connecting it to your Google Home device ™, which would become the top story on HN. Famous bio-hsckers would hold TED talks on the subject. MacWorld would for years write articles about apples significantly better solution that will very soon be unveiled. Doctors would warn about the risks, but in 2030 nobody listens to doctors anymore.

(You can see this happening, can't you?)

Surveillance capitalism could go away tomorrow and Microsoft would be fine, they do it because everyone else does but it’s not core to their business. Whereas it’s all Google has.

I do not and will never trust either company. If I had to choose a top tech company, I would probably pick Apple, although they do have an ad network and have a lot information about you if you are in their ecosystem. Also stay away from Facebook and Amazon based on privacy. If you really want to go with 100% privacy, you could say goodbye to you all these companies and forget about the convenience and using all their services. For me, I’m trying to stay the hell away from Google. I found it really difficult to get away from Gmail, google voice and Waze.