Hotmail Accounts changed by MS w/o notice

[Eutychus]

MICROSOFT COPIES YAHOO! CHANGES MARKETING PREFERENCES.

Do you have a Microsoft Passport or Hotmail account?

It appears that on or around May 13th, Microsoft chose to reset the marketing preferences of ALL their members. I guess they thought since Yahoo! is doing it, they could too. In March, Yahoo! changed the preferences of all its members, effectively giving itself permission to spam them.

In essence, Microsoft has given itself permission to share all your personal data with other companies, even if you specifically told them they couldn't when you signed up.

Sure enough, after reading about this development, I logged into my account and under Options > Personal Profile I found the boxes next to "Share my e-mail address" and "Share my other registration information" checked!

By the way, if you were a Ford Credit customer, watch out. 13,000 customers had their data stolen ( http://news.com.com/2100-1017-916940.html?tag=cd_mh ) according to News.com

What's the world coming to?

[pentachris]

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif

Thanks for the heads up, Eutychus.

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Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

[kfh]

Hi Eutychus,
Thanks for that info.
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
kfh.


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Sequitur Patrem Non Passibus Aequis

[Lucias_Clay]

I have a couple of hotmail accounts. But as far as personal data goes if you dont give them real data then Oh Well.

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"....I'm tired of being lonesome, ornery and mean." (Waylon Jennings)(Rest in Peace my friend.)

[ErnieK]

Eutychus
I have jus tpopped into my hotmail aco**** and tried to check as you said. What I got was a wizard asking me to sign up for a PASSPORT account. I refused. So I cannot see what changes that MS has made. I do know that there was a bit of a furore a few weeks ago bocause of PASSPORT tracking you all over the web, and then sending back info to MS (pages \ sites visited etc.) who would then "sell" \ give this info to whom-ever they wanted. My understanding is that if you ONLY have a hotmail account this does not happen, I could be wrong on that point though.

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Ernie

[Paul Komski]

Thanks Eutychus. Sure enough sharing my eMail address AND registration info had been checked without my knowledge or consent!!! How low can M$ sink?

I really only have hotmail as a backup eMail and because my sister likes to contact me on MSN now and then. I hadn't checked mail for about a week and there were 563 !!! spam messages in my inbox as well as God knows how many bulk mail ones. But the good thing is that the account is so full that all the spam is now being RETURNED to sender (not that that is probably happening anyway). What a waste of bandwidth it all is. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/mad.gif


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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul
"People in glasshouses ..... shouldn't undress during daylight!"

[setoguro]

Thanks I found found mine checked too. I was woundering why all the sudden I was getting tons of spam.

[rahulkothari]

mine too was checked http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif ... but (lucky me http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif)... i didnt receive any spam (not even a single unsolicited mail)

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An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
-Mahatma Gandhi

[ErnieK]

Heres a link to MS's (Madeup stories) official reply to the changing of personal settings. Don't they tell whoppers! http://www.net4nowt.com/comments/1021747677,42364,.shtml


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Ernie

[Eutychus]

If you have a Hotmail account then you know by now that if you use the Pop3 Retrieval Feature you will soon have to pay. They have redesigned the site to expose you to as many ads as possible - OK, that's fair, though annoying. They changed all users' deafults without warning to allow their sharing (spell that "selling") of your email & other information. That was rude and unethical - they never did inform me of that, I had to read it elsewhere.

Now they are taking away about the only useful feature left - POP3 retrieval, a feature that was billed as free when I signed up. As webmaster of several sites it is extremely useful to be able to click one button and see if anything important has arrived at any of several POP3 accounts. (I even have a second Hotmail account that I use just for checking another set of POP3 accounts.) I never reply to those accounts in Hotmail but sometimes attachments download correctly there when my web based interface doesn't display properly.

Does anyone know of a way to check POP3 accounts when you are away from home AND you don't want to remove the original from the email server?

[penta_chris]

Eutychus
Scroll down to Popcorn on this page (http://www.webattack.com/Freeware/comm/fwemclients.shtml) and see if that'll suit your needs.

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I been doing it since I was a young kid
I come out grinnin'
I fight authority,
Authority always wins

[sea69]

Eutychus- please let us know how/if this works for you.

I use MailWasher (http://www.webattack.com/Freeware/comm/fwspam.shtml)- it does basically a lot of the things the other app mentioned does and a few more. can be used on any computer anywhere- can easily be put on CD or compressed floppy for transport to install on other machines.

I use it now exclusively (I don't even open OE unless I am sending email).


Now when the SPAMMERS try my address, tehy get "bounced"- now I am getting less to the server and NONE to my machine!


I love this site- some very useful free apps.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[Eutychus]

penta_chris, that looks like it might fit the bill!

Thanks for the info and for sharing a neat site that I had not seen before.

Euty

[sea69]

I didn't get a chance to edit above spelling errors.

one of the only things I actually don't like about this forum.

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif



[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 06-06-2002).]

[Eutychus]

And thanks sea69, I'll also check out MailWasher. (Looks like we were both posting at the same time, so I didn't read yours until afterwards.)

[sea69]

hehe- I usually have to edit a one line response!

another great thing about getting to see and evaluate your email prior to it getting to your machine is that there's NO CHANCE of any virus or attachments getting to you!

None.

and FREE??- I'd have PAID for this one!

(well- maybe)

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif



[This message has been edited by sea69 (edited 06-06-2002).]

[kayofcircles]

Thanks for bringing this thread back "up" because I missed it the first time. Just came back from checking my Hotmail acct..and sure enough, everything checked. Argh..ticked at Microsoft this morning... Microsoft screwed Hotmail up quite a bit the last time they "upgraded"..and now this? Someone just suggested Eudora in the last few days..maybe I should stop being so lazy and set in ways/habits and go check out some alternatives.

Thanks, Eutychus!

[YODA74]

yup just went to that site man what a waste

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YODA74@windows-sucks.com
CCMR (http://www.dreamwater.net/tech/yoda74/index.html)

PUSH TO TEST. RELEASE TO DETONATE.
[Closed captioned for the thinking impaired.]

[This message has been edited by YODA74 (edited 06-06-2002).]

[sea69]

Originally posted by YODA74:
yup just went to that site man what a waste



could you elaborate on that please??

http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

[YODA74]

opps didn't finish did i, no not the site you mentioned sea meant to put in the artical on what M4 did to the Hotmail accounts.trying to do to many things here at once, lost the light bulb Icons on the left of forums here?? can't seem to refresh it and have accept all cookies from here??

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YODA74@windows-sucks.com
CCMR (http://www.dreamwater.net/tech/yoda74/index.html)

PUSH TO TEST. RELEASE TO DETONATE.
[Closed captioned for the thinking impaired.]

[Eutychus]

Arghh! I downloaded & installed both programs and both are nice. But the corporate firewall (I guess) keeps them from working (can't even do Outlook Express here). I like that Popcorn is so portable and doesn't tinker with the registry when it installs, but I also like the bounce feature on Mailwasher. Either should work fine at at home. I'm kinda stuck with web based interfaces away from home.

[Paul Komski]

I have successfully used Kempston POP3 ScanMailbox (http://www.kempston.demon.co.uk/smb/intro.html) in the past. Freeware about 2MB. Another one to maybe tryout. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

You can download messages, headers, parts of messages and delete them or leave on the mail server.

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Take nice care of yourselves - Paul
"People in glasshouses ..... shouldn't undress during daylight!"

[jabarnutcase]

Thanks Eutychus! Found your post just looking around and you were right -those@%#^*&% checked my boxes to share info too! Just updated my profile. Thanks again for sharing that!

[mjc]

For those who want to take a looke at Popcorn here is a direct link: http://www.ultrafunk.com/products/popcorn/

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mjc
Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Paleo Pete]

Eutychus You can check POP3 mail from anywhere, and use your local server. Set up the account and make sure you have it use the current connection, that will avoid dialing a long distance number to connect to yor local server.

In Outlook Express go to Tools\Accounts, highlight the account and click Properties then the Connections tab. You'll see a drop down box toward the bottom that says "Always connect to this account using" and the account name. Just make sure it has the remote access account listed there instead of your home ISP.

Then go to the Advanced tab and look at the bottom for a line that says "Leave a copy of messages on server". Pay attention to the other two boxes below it, they affect how this option works as well. Especially the bottom one, remove from server when deleted. Set the time to leave them on the server, making sure they stay long enough you can get home and go through your mail. The default is 5 days I think.

If you check the bottom box to remove deleted items from server, just make sure when you delete a message you KNOW you won't regret it later...if in doubt, uncheck that box.

That setup works quite well, I use it when I go out of town and have never had any foul-ups with it. I have the home machine set to delete immediately on closing, so that takes care of anything I decide I don't need after I get back, as well as allowing me to download the same messages again once I get home. The one drawback is it might take a while to download all the messages if you get lots of mail...like the 60 or so spam emails I had last time I went to my mother's house for a few days...I keep copies of those for future reference, so I let them stay.

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If your nose runs and your feet smell...
You're built upside down!
Note: Please post your questions on the forums, not in my email.

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