Microsoft Privacy Principles
for Search and Online Behavioral Advertising
Updated: June 2011
Microsoft Privacy Principles for Search and Online Behavioral Advertising were originally published in
July 2007. Built on our existing policies and practices and complementing our many other privacy
efforts, the five principles represent the ongoing evolution of Microsoft’s long-standing commitment to
privacy:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Transparency
User control
Data retention and anonymization
Privacy by design
Legal requirements and industry best practices
We adopted these principles to guide our practices in the areas of search and online behavioral
advertising, and they have remained consistent and core to our privacy efforts, even as they are applied
to dynamic technologies that are rapidly developing and changing. As such, we committed ourselves to
continually examine and update our privacy approach to ensure that we are striking the right balance
for our customers and end users. This update both reflects an enduring commitment to these basic
principles and recognizes the significant progress Microsoft has made over time.
Principle I: Transparency
We are transparent about our policies and practices so that you can make informed choices.
Our commitments:

The Microsoft Online Privacy Statement provides clear disclosures, such as the Bing Privacy
Supplement, in an easy to navigate format and is easily accessible from every page of our major
online services.

We will regularly update the Microsoft Online Privacy Statement to maintain or enhance
transparency as our services evolve or our practices change.

We provide an industry-standard “About our ads” link at the bottom of our websites that may
display advertisements, including bing.com, msn.com, and live.com, to give you quick access to
more information and choices about how we personalize ads.

We are also implementing an industry-standard AdChoices icon in or next to display
advertisements on our websites that you can click to get more information and choices about
how we personalize ads. For now these icons are available only in the United States market of
our websites.
Principle II: User control
We will design new privacy features and practices to give you more control as we continue to develop
our online services.
Our commitments:









We will continue to offer you easy ways to opt out from personalized advertising by Microsoft’s
network of advertising services, and these methods will meet or exceed industry standards.
You can tie your choices about personalized advertising to your Windows Live ID so that those
choices will apply to any computer or device, including smartphones, whenever you are signed
in to Windows Live.
We provide numerous additional links to make it easy to find our personalized advertising optout page, and we have enhanced this page to help you better understand the effects of your
opt-out choice.
We have combined our My Interests tool with the opt-out page to give you the opportunity to
indicate your advertising interests and help you to better control the personalized advertising
you will see on sites serviced by the Microsoft Advertising Platform.
We provide you with controls to clear your search history, removing it from the Search History
service and preventing that history from being displayed on the site.
If you have a Facebook account, you can use Bing’s Facebook Instant Personalization features
for a more relevant and useful search experience, and you can turn off or re-enable these at any
time.
We offer tools and controls in our browser, such as Tracking Protection in Internet Explorer 9, to
give you more control over the collection of information about your online activities.
We will continue to develop new controls that will provide you with more transparency and
choice over how your information is collected and used.
We will continue to provide you with choices about the search results you want to see with our
Bing SafeSearch feature.
Principle III: Data retention and anonymization
We will implement specific policies about search query data and other data used for online behavioral
advertising, will tell you how long we retain such data, and will explain when and how we may
“anonymize” or “de-identify” such data.
Our commitments:

We will anonymize all Bing search query data in a two-stage process, where we delete IP
addresses after six months and delete cookie IDs and other cross-session identifiers after 18
months, unless we receive your consent for a longer time period.


We will ensure that any personalized services we offer where you may choose a longer
retention period are offered in a transparent way with prominent notice and consent.
We will follow high standards for protecting the privacy and security of your data as long as it is
retained, as described in Principle IV, which follows.
Principle IV: Privacy by design
We will continue to design privacy into our systems and processes in ways that minimize the impact of
the data we collect, store, process, and use to deliver our products and services.
Our commitments:



We designed our online behavioral advertising platform to select ads that are more relevant to
you and are based only on data that does not personally and directly identify you unless you
provide consent to such action. Information related to your online activity, such as what you
search for or what you click is stored separately from any information that personally and
directly identifies you. We will maintain and continually improve protective measures to prevent
unauthorized correlation of this data.
Any services we offer you that require the correlation of your online activity data to personally
identifying information (PII) are offered in a transparent way, and provide you with prominent
notice to obtain your consent.
We will continue to improve technological and process protective measures that help guard
your information.
Principle V: Legal requirements and industry best practices
We will follow all applicable legal requirements as well as leading industry best practices in the markets
where we operate.
Our commitments:





We adhere to the standards set forth in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) privacy guidelines.
We follow the Online Privacy Alliance (OPA) guidelines.
We are a member of the TRUSTe Privacy Program.
We abide by the U.S.-European Union Safe Harbor Framework regarding the collection, use, and
retention of data.
We follow the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) Principles and the Self-Regulatory Principles
of Online Behavioral Advertising developed by the American Association of Advertising Agencies
(AAAA), Association of National Advertisers (ANA), Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA), Counsel of
Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), Direct Marketing Association (DMA), and Interactive
Advertising Bureau (IAB).
For Microsoft to succeed in today's dynamic environment, we must earn your trust that we are an
accountable organization with an inherent respect for privacy. We will continue to try to earn that trust
by being as transparent as possible about the people, policies, and processes we have in place to protect
privacy. For more information about our commitment to your privacy, visit
http://www.microsoft.com/privacy.