MSN Sites and Services Privacy Supplement

Note that this page is a supplement to the Microsoft Online Privacy Statement. In order to understand the data collection and use practices relevant for a particular site or service, you should read both the Microsoft Online Privacy Statement and any applicable supplement.

MSN Sites and Services Privacy Supplement

last updated: September 2006

This supplement contains additional information related to the following MSN sites and services:

MSN Search and Toolbar
MSN Money
MSN Personal Address
MSN Games
MSN Mobile
MSN Direct

There are separate supplements for MSN Premium, MSN Plus and MSN 9 Dial-Up software and MSN Messenger. Please note that some services that were formerly available under the MSN brand are now part of the Windows Live family of services. Additional information on these services may be found in the Windows Live Privacy Supplement.

MSN Search and Toolbar

Each time you use MSN Search, including the MSN Toolbar, cookies may be placed on your machine and MSN may collect your Internet IP address, the time and date of your search terms, and your browser configuration. MSN may use this information to customize your search results.

If you choose the "Near Me" Search feature, MSN will attempt to derive your approximate location based on your IP address, and will use that information to display search results tailored to your geographic location. You can change your default location by clicking on the "Settings" link on the search page. Your location, along with other search settings, will be stored in a cookie on your machine.

While you have MSN Toolbar installed, please note that new versions of the MSN Toolbar may automatically be installed on your computer. This keeps your Toolbar up-to-date and lets you take advantage of new features as soon as they are available.

If you choose to install and use Desktop Search, you can search for e-mail, documents and other files located on your computer directly from the Toolbar. No information about the files on your computer will be sent to Microsoft as part of this process. Instead, Desktop Search will index the content of you computer and store the index file on your computer. You can customize Desktop Search to index only specified folders on your computer. Desktop search will not store copies of e-mail or documents after they are deleted.

The MSN Toolbar also includes an optional feature that can automatically fill out forms on Web sites with information such as your address, passwords, and credit card information so that you do not have to repeatedly type the same information or remember multiple passwords. This information is encrypted and saved on your computer; it is not sent to Microsoft. The Toolbar will prompt you to create a single "form fill password." You must enter the form fill password every time you wish to automatically enter a stored credit card number and the first time each browser session you wish to automatically enter a stored password.

The Microsoft Phishing Filter Add-in for the MSN Toolbar can warn you if the Web site you are visiting might be impersonating a trusted Web site. Phishing Filter does this by first checking the address of the Web site you are visiting against a list of Web site addresses stored on your computer that have been reported to Microsoft as legitimate ("legitimate list"). Addresses not on the legitimate list will be sent to Microsoft and checked against a frequently updated list of Web sites that have been reported to Microsoft as phishing, suspicious, or legitimate Web sites. Along with these addresses, some standard information from your computer such as IP address, browser type, and Phishing Filter version number are sent to Microsoft.

To help protect your privacy, the address information sent to Microsoft by the Phishing Filter is encrypted using SSL and limited to the domain and path of the web site. Other information that may be associated with the address, such as search terms, data you entered in forms, or cookies, will not be sent. For example, if you visited the MSN search web site at http://search.msn.com and entered "MySecret" as the search term, instead of sending the full address "http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=MySecret&FORM=QBHP", Phishing Filter would remove the search term and only send "http://search.msn.com/results.aspx".

Anonymous statistics about your usage of Phishing Filter will also be sent to Microsoft such as the time and total number of Web sites browsed since an address was sent to Microsoft for analysis. This information, along with the information described above, will be used to analyze the performance and improve the quality of the Phishing Filter service. Microsoft will not use the information it receives to personally identify you. Phishing Filter in the MSN Toolbar can be turned off by removing the Toolbar Phishing Filter Add-in from the Phishing Filter tab in toolbar options, or by uninstalling it in Windows XP through add/remove programs.

Toolbar users will be given a choice to allow Microsoft to collect additional information about your computer hardware, how you use the toolbar, the websites you visit, and your actions while reviewing MSN Search results. Such actions may include which results are visited and how much time is spent on a particular search results page. None of this information is used to identify you and is used only in the aggregate to help improve this and other Microsoft products and services. You can change your choice at any time on the MSN Toolbar options screen.

MSN Money

As part of providing MSN Money customers with a central location for managing personal finances, MSN may request that you furnish personal information such as your e-mail address, name and physical address along with financial data such as account balances, account numbers, credit card balances, and stock and bond portfolio information. MSN uses this information to provide you with online bill-paying services, portfolio tracking, and other requested financial services.

MSN Personal Address and Live Domain Services

To fulfill your domain name request, Microsoft uses several accredited Registrars to register your selected domain name(s). We ask you to supply registrant and administrative contact information such as name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address. To view or modify this data, go to http://domains.msn.com/settings, and sign in as the primary account holder. Then click on the "Domain Information" link.

As required by the Internet's governing organization (ICANN), the Registrar used to register your domain name will make this contact information available in a public registry. To review the data in this registry, you can visit http://www.geektools.com/whois.php.

MSN Games

To play interactive games in MSN Games, we request that you create a social nickname which is the name you will be known by to others in public areas. Inside MSN Games it is also possible to create an optional MSN Games Profile. This profile contains information about the games you like to play, your favorite URL, a description of your interests, and scores you might have attained if you visited any of the rated rooms on the site. All such information is optional and everything you enter in your MSN Games Profile will be visible to other users of MSN Games. We urge you to be careful only to enter information on your profile that you are comfortable sharing with the public at large. You may edit, delete, or modify information in your MSN Games Profile at any time by clicking on "Support," then "My Account Information."

MSN Mobile

When you sign up for MSN Mobile for your mobile phone or pager, Microsoft collects your Passport member name (e-mail address), mobile alert preferences, and other information about your mobile device necessary to provide the service. Microsoft uses this information to operate the MSN Mobile service and provide customer support to users when they need help. If you signed up for MSN Mobile at a co-branded site, your carrier will also have your personal information. You may visit the MSN Mobile website at any time to view or change your personal information.

MSN Direct

The MSN Direct is a specialized wireless service that delivers personalized information through the FM subcarrier radio network to enabled watches. All information sent over the network is encrypted for security and each watch has a unique ID to ensure that only your watch can display the content intended specifically for you - such as your calendar or messages.

Watches with MSN Direct are one-way information receiving devices. They do not broadcast any information, such as your location, that could be received by MSN or others. There are, however, two ways in which MSN Direct may collect information about your general location.

When you sign up for the service on the MSN Direct website, we will collect an activation code that will be displayed on your watch. This code will identify the radio tower from which your watch is receiving a signal. This information indicates which metropolitan area you were in at time of sign-up.

You can also provide, at the MSN Direct website, information about where you live and where you commute. This location data allows us to send you relevant information for your locale, such as traffic updates. In addition, you can also provide your travel locations so that personalized information can be temporarily re-routed to broadcast towers near you when you are away from home.