(Via SlashDot)

Anyone who uses Microsoft's Hotmail service will be interested to know that they have decided to share all its user's private information, without consulting them, and in violation of their own Statement of Privacy. New privacy settings have appeared on the profile options page allowing MS to give personal information away, and they all started out checked by default. You can uncheck them, of course, but that is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted - MS has already given the information away.

Well, you can only uncheck these settings if you use IE - other browsers can't access the options page. Funny that.

And I say that they gave the information away. Actually, they sold it, naturally. Note that it's not just your email address that are selling - it's your full name, your age, your sex and your occupation.

I don't use Hotmail myself - I never trusted MS in the first place. But if you do, it's time for a new email address. And I know just the place to get one.

Update 28th May 2002: Yes, I know, fuckmicrosoft.com only offers a forwarding address. If you want an email address that you can access via the web, well, there are lots of alternatives, but I like beer.com. Just because the address is cool, basically.

Update 26th July: They are deleting your old mails now. Bastards. Hotmail, just say no.