Microsoft’s new Services Agreement says something hugely important we can safely bet Google will never say.

“We won’t use the content in your emails to target you with ads,” says Microsoft’s updated agreement, effective July 31.

The Microsoft Services Agreement also promises “we do not use what you say in email, chat, video calls, or voice mail to target advertising to you. Nor do we use your documents, photos, or other personal files to target advertising to you.”

Sure, there are plenty of other ways for Microsoft to target advertising, but this makes clear than Microsoft understands the concept of “don’t be creepy” better than Google.

What does the updated language cover? Pretty much everything, including “Bing, MSN, Outlook.com (formerly Hotmail), OneDrive (formerly SkyDrive), Microsoft account, Family Safety, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Writer, Office.com, Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium, Microsoft Office 365 University, and other Microsoft Office–branded services that link to the agreement through a supplemental agreement.”

Additionally, key services — Microsoft account, Outlook.com, OneDrive, and Family Safety — now have their own privacy policies.

The one area of concern about the new agreement, and I am not sure this can be handed differently, is that Microsoft makes parents responsible for what their children do online, like ordering Microsoft services.

According to the FAQ:

“We added section 1.5, which states that parents are responsible for Microsoft account and Services usage by their minor children, including any purchases. Some of our services do require payment, such as ad-free Outlook.com, OneDrive extra storage, or an Office 365 consumer subscription.”

Reading the new agreement isn’t painful and may be enlightening. The language is mostly friendly and you can find it here.

Why I trust Microsoft

Bill Gates has never lied to me. He’s been wrong a few times and product releases have slipped, but I’ve never felt Bill, Steve or Microsoft as a whole ever misled me or misused my personal information.

Microsoft is in a different business than Google. Quaint as it may be, Microsoft is still mostly about selling software and services, not advertising. Nor does Microsoft seek to index all the world’s information and use it to drive advertising. And Microsoft makes it easy to opt-out from its targeted ads.

Call me naïve, but I’ve come to trust Microsoft at a personal level, even if I don’t always like what the company does. I don’t expect its new CEO to change this and he may even improve my comfort level.

Why I don’t trust Google

Google is entirely about following me around online, reading my email and using the information to send me targeted ads. Often, ads for sites I have visited long after I stopped caring or, worse, after I’ve already purchased the product or service being advertised.

I find the idea that Google want to store my health information completely laughable. First, my entire medical record is already online and as wearable fitness devices become more common, I expect my provider (Kaiser Permanente) will store that information, too.

Do I want Google to know I have “condition x”? Not particularly, but with this now posted, if such a condition really exists, Google will doubtless associate me with it.

I’d love to see Google mimic Microsoft’s new user-friendly service agreement, especially the part limiting what information it gathers and uses, but feel very confident that will never happen.

Where Microsoft could lead

Bing was not hauled into court and is not obligated to give Europeans any “right to be forgotten.” But if Microsoft wanted to, it could sharply differentiate itself from Google by giving its customers such a right worldwide.

There would be lots of details to work out, but this could be one way Bing differentiates itself by providing better and more truthful results than Google.

About improving my comfort level, giving people a little control over what is said about them would certainly help. Bing a more-trusted search engine? Why not?

photo credits: Alan Cleaver and powtac via photopin cc