Microsoft Ironically Selling Shirts and Mugs that Make Fun of Google Stealing People’s Data

By Melissa Melton: Everyone knows Bill Gates thinks his company’s search engine Bing is much better than Google. Now the official Microsoft store has added a new line of products jabbing at Google, and its web browser, Chrome for customer data theft.

Now you too can own your very own, “Keep Calm While We Steal Your Data” mug or t-shirt with the Google Chrome logo on it. Not sure what to get your Aunt Netta who has everything this Christmas? Maybe she needs a creepy t-shirt with the Google Chrome logo dressed up in a fedora and trench coat that says, “I’m watching you” on the front and “Don’t get Scroogled” on the back.

Scroogled is the phrase Bing came up with for an anti-Google campaign regarding Gmail breaking wiretap laws when the company uses keywords in emails to target people with ads. The description for the $7.99 mug, for example, says, “Put 15-ounces of your favorite beverage into this stoneware mug to let the world know that even though Google is trying to make money on almost every aspect of your digital life, you’re still calm. And fully caffeinated.” Prices are pretty cheap in the Scroogled store. Microsoft is selling the shirts for just $11.99, an amount much less likely to net a lot of profit as it is to just try and make Google look bad.


Because, you know, Microsoft is the Snow White in this fairy tale of privacy on the Internet, right? Microsoft would never steal data or allow any of its customer’s data to be stolen…right?

What eyeball-melting irony.

Starting with the release of Windows 7, stories emerged that government backdoors had been built into the software — stories which the company denied. With the release of Windows 8, documents leaked from the German Federal Office for Information Security suggested a backdoor had been created for covert NSA spying.

Then this past summer, leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden spelled out exactly how Microsoft worked with the government to purposefully build NSA access into it’s Skydive cloud storage and that a backdoor allowed the NSA access to all emails in Microsoft Outlook prior to encryption.

“This new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response. This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established.”

The documents also detail how Microsoft and Skype have also been working with the intelligence agencies to install monitoring taps. Work began on integrating Prism into Skype in November 2010, they state, three months before the company was issued with an official order to comply by the US Attorney General.

Data collection began on February 6, 2011, and the NSA document says the planned systems worked well, with full metadata collection enabled. It praised Microsoft for its help, saying “collaborative teamwork was the key to the successful addition of another provider to the Prism system.” [emphasis added] (source)

…yeah. What did those t-shirts Microsoft was selling say about Google stealing people’s data again?

Dear Google (Kettle):

You are black.

Sincerely,

Microsoft (Pot)

Source