REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 20, 2013 — Today, Microsoft Corp. announced two new competitions that focus on women and female technology innovators at Microsoft Imagine Cup, the company’s global student technology competition.

The Women’s Empowerment Award was established in partnership with UN Women, the U.N. organization working to accelerate gender equality and the empowerment of women, and will be awarded to two student teams of any gender that create projects that best address issues impacting women globally. Registration also is now open for the Women’s Athletics App Challenge, in partnership with the Seattle Storm women’s basketball team, which inspires female developers, innovators and entrepreneurs to create software related to sports, health or fitness.

Teams of any gender from around the world that advance to the Imagine Cup 2013 Worldwide Finals will be eligible to enter their projects into consideration for the Women’s Empowerment Award. The first-place prize (US$12,000) and the second-place prize (US$8,000) will be awarded to the projects that best address economic inequality, access to technology and other resources, gender-based violence, leadership and political participation, or other critical women’s issues. Applicants will be judged on the potential impact their projects can have on the lives of women, including feasibility to address the target issue and the quality of the application.

“Students can be change agents; they can revolutionize the world we live in,” said Kristin Hetle, director of Strategic Partnerships of UN Women. “By harnessing the power of technology, they can bring attention to issues that women, in particular, face every day. The Women’s Empowerment Award will encourage and reward students who choose to focus their energy on creating positive change for women globally.”

The Women’s Athletics App Challenge is open for submissions from all-female teams worldwide that want to compete to code the best sports, fitness and athletics apps for an opportunity to have a private meet-and-greet with a Seattle Storm basketball player and watch a game on the Storm’s home court in Seattle. The winning team, announced this summer, will also receive a US$1,000 prize per team member.

“The Storm and Microsoft look forward to seeing the types of apps women around the world — from Canada to Kazakhstan — will build to promote healthier lifestyles, give consumers more incentive to stay active, or help people realize exercise and sports can be a great way to have fun and stay in shape at the same time,” said Karen Bryant, president and CEO, Seattle Storm.

Female participation in the Imagine Cup continues to grow steadily. Last year, nearly 20 percent of students at the Worldwide Finals were female. One of Imagine Cup’s goals is to help participants build developer skill sets, learn how to launch startup businesses, and enhance their prototypes based on the advice of mentors and judges. Imagine Cup gives women an important platform to pursue interests and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)-related fields and serves as a launch pad for them to becoming developers, innovators or entrepreneurs.

For example, during Imagine Cup 2012, one all-female team from Oman created a mobile application that monitors blood bank levels and sends alerts to eligible donors via SMS when there are shortages. “Participating in Imagine Cup offered us the chance to meet other student developers and build new skills,” said Omaima Al Muraikhi from Team Grawesome, recounting her experience participating in the event. “Because of the opportunities that came through Imagine Cup, we’re now entrepreneurs working hard to create our own technology startup business, based in the Middle East.”

It’s not only all-female teams making an impact on women’s lives. The recent winner of a Microsoft Imagine Cup Grant of $50,000 from Uganda was an all-male team that created a mobile application to aid health workers as they assist expectant mothers. The algorithm analyzes fetal heart sounds to determine the fetal heart rate and the position and age of the fetus, and it securely stores the results in the cloud, ultimately improving women’s maternal health.

About UN Women

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. www.unwomen.org

About The Seattle Storm

The 2010 WNBA champion Seattle Storm is one of six independently owned teams in the WNBA, the world’s preeminent women’s professional basketball league. Established in 2000, the Storm is committed to bringing outstanding professional basketball to a diverse and rapidly growing fan base. The team aims to serve as a powerful community advocate with a focus on literacy, health and fitness and support for women and girls and youth basketball. Recognized as one of the WNBA’s most active teams in the community, the Storm is committed to serving others through partnerships and the team’s community initiatives. More information is available at StormBasketball.com.

About Microsoft Imagine Cup

This is the 11th year of Imagine Cup, part of Microsoft YouthSpark, which will be celebrated at the Worldwide Finals in St. Petersburg, Russia, July 8–11. Students ages 16 and older are eligible to register and compete in Imagine Cup by visiting http://www.imaginecup.com. A full list of competition categories is available at http://imaginecup.com/main/compete.

About Microsoft YouthSpark

Microsoft YouthSpark is a global initiative that aims to create opportunities for 300 million youth in more than 100 countries during the next three years. This companywide initiative includes Citizenship and other company programs — both new and enhanced — that empower youth to imagine and realize their full potential by connecting them with greater opportunities for education, employment and entrepreneurship. Find out more at http://www.microsoft.com/youthspark.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 19, 2013 — Today, Microsoft Corp. announced that its highly popular email service, Outlook.com, is ready for prime time. Since the release of Outlook.com last summer as a preview, millions of people have already actively started using it, making it the world’s fastest growing email service, going from 0 to 60 million in just six months.

A Vision for Modern Email

Email is a critical part of our everyday lives; email plays a crucial role in how we get things done. Outlook.com was designed as an email service focused on removing barriers and simply getting people going. Outlook.com gets people going in four key areas:

• Delivering a beautiful, fresh and intuitive experience on modern browsers and devices

• Keeping people connected with their friends and co-workers across the networks they really use

• Providing a smart and powerful inbox to handle today’s email needs including SkyDrive for sharing virtually anything in a single email

• Putting people in control by prioritizing their privacy

More Than 60 Million Help Make the Outlook.com Vision Come to Life

Through the preview, Microsoft has heard a great deal about customers’ favorite features, the way they use the product, and how well Outlook.com is delivering on the company’s vision for modern email. For example, Outlook.com lets customers connect to popular social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Today, millions of people are using those features to keep up to date with friends’ contact info updates, photos and tweets. Outlook.com is also designed to make it easy to send hundreds of photos and videos in a single message — all powered by SkyDrive. After only six months, nearly half of all people using Outlook.com have already used SkyDrive to share more than half a billion photos and Office documents.

A Great Upgrade for Hotmail Customers

Starting today, Microsoft will begin to upgrade every Hotmail user to Outlook.com. The upgrade is seamless and instant for Hotmail customers; everything including their @hotmail.com email address, password, contacts, etc., will stay the same. Now Hotmail customers will get all the benefits from the redesigned Outlook.com experience: a fresh and intuitive user interface, lots of new features, and better performance.

Get Started Today

Those who would like to get the new benefits of the Outlook.com experience can check it out today at Outlook.com.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 15, 2013 — The Texas Department of Information Resources is moving to the cloud with Microsoft Office 365 as part of a statewide IT modernization strategy. Office 365, an always-up-to-date cloud productivity service, will streamline and improve the state’s communication and collaboration capabilities for more than 100,000 employees, making it the largest statewide deployment of email and collaboration services in the U.S. Office 365 has already been deployed across multiple state agencies, including the Health and Human Services System, Department of Transportation, Department of Motor Vehicles, Department of Information Resources, and Department of Insurance, with the Department of Criminal Justice and Alcoholic Beverage Commission coming on board soon. The move to Office 365 offers the state significant savings in IT spending because of greater efficiencies and increased capacity.

“No other solution provides the rich capabilities of Office 365, including webconferencing, real-time collaboration, and document and calendar sharing,” said Todd Kimbriel, director of E-Government for the Texas Department of Information Resources. “Office 365 will increase efficiency and help our agencies better serve the needs of citizens without compromising on security or privacy.”

Compliance was an important factor in the state’s selection of Office 365. Several agencies, including Texas’ Department of Criminal Justice, Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Department of Insurance, and Health and Human Services System, require access to data that is subject to complex security and privacy regulations.

Texas Department of Information Resources and Microsoft Corp. worked together to support the state’s requirements under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and Criminal Justice Information Systems (CJIS), in order to maintain the state’s compliance posture and high standards for security and privacy. Microsoft has made a contractual commitment to the Texas Department of Information Resources by signing the CJIS Addendum in addition to a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement. As a result of this partnership, jurisdictions at all levels within the State of Texas, including cities and counties, will be able to take advantage of Office 365.

“Microsoft has been a long-standing strategic partner with a commitment to understanding and addressing the unique requirements law enforcement and health care practitioners must meet,” said Karen Robinson, Department of Information Resources executive director and State of Texas chief information officer. “The enterprise-class capabilities of Office 365 and Microsoft’s proven track record gave us the confidence we needed to move to the cloud.”

“We’ve worked hard to provide security and privacy solutions the State of Texas can trust,” said Michael Donlan, vice president for Microsoft’s State and Local Government business. “The familiarity of Office backed by deep investments in cloud security, privacy and compliance play an important role in how Microsoft is enabling city, state and federal agencies to move to the cloud.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

R EDMOND , Wash. — Feb . 13 , 2013 — Today the Illinois Department of Corrections (DOC) and Microsoft Corp. announced the successful implementation of the Offender-360 project, a cloud-based criminal justice information system built on Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online. The solution directly supports legislation signed by Gov. Pat Quinn that aims to improve Illinois public safety and criminal justice for the future.

“This cutting-edge technology will give Illinois one of the most advanced criminal justice information systems in the country,” Quinn said. “It will save Illinois’ taxpayers millions of dollars while increasing public safety throughout the state.”

In 2010, the state evaluated its technology landscape for managing its 49,000 inmates and 28,000 parolees with the goal of transforming the Illinois DOC by improving efficiency, reducing costs and ensuring unwavering corrections operations. As a result of the evaluation, Illinois charted a course toward replacing a large 1980s mainframe system and 41 disparate offender management applications that had become outdated and costly to use and maintain.

After evaluating 20 possible solutions — including an option that would have cost taxpayers upward of $100 million — Illinois DOC selected Microsoft Dynamics CRM to manage its statewide criminal justice population as a modern case management solution that will transform DOC business and extend the mission of citizen safety. Illinois DOC is undergoing a phased rollout, anticipating 5,500 users of Offender-360 by the summer of 2013. The solution centralizes all information and intelligence on offenders to help staff make more effective and informed decisions regarding placement, rehabilitation and release.

“The open architecture in Microsoft Dynamics lets us create a solution that enables analysis to more effectively serve our offender population,” said Steven Matthews, chief information officer, Illinois DOC. “Because of budget constraints and a shortfall of infrastructure and personnel resources to support this enterprise-level application, we launched the state’s first cloud initiative. This allows us to cut costs while continuing to achieve the mission with a security-enhanced solution.”

With guidance from Tribridge, 2012 Microsoft Dynamics State and Local Government Partner of the Year, the Illinois DOC was able to configure, develop and deploy the robust and flexible architecture of Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online through trained and certified union members, significantly reducing the Offender-360 solution cost and deployment timeframe. The use of union workers helped Illinois avoid hiring contractors, gave union employees advancement opportunities and drove revenue back to the state by using an Illinois-based union workforce.

“Illinois is leading the nation in adopting a statewide, cloud-based solution that will effectively manage the offender population and ultimately better protect its citizens,” said Amir Capriles, general manager, U.S. Public Sector Dynamics at Microsoft. “Illinois is a leader among its peers, demonstrating that criminal justice programs across the country can be transformed by modernizing legacy systems with cloud-based solutions while supporting necessary security, business processes and legislation.”

Faced with fiscal challenges and resource constraints, federal agencies, state governments, localities and education institutions throughout the U.S. are looking for alternatives to high-cost legacy systems. The Illinois DOC cited the Microsoft Dynamics CRM offering as an application platform that can support modernization initiatives and still achieve impactful, low-cost results.

Adopting a next-generation enterprise-ready application platform is becoming increasingly common among criminal justice agencies seeking to transform and modernize their operations. The County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania is following the example of Illinois DOC with a similar modernization approach on behalf of that state’s 67 counties, while INTERPOL Washington is more effectively investigating fugitives, financial fraud, drug violations, terrorism and violent crimes.

More information about Illinois DOC can be found at http://www.illinois.gov/idoc. More information on Microsoft corrections solutions is available at: http://microsoft.com/corrections.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 11, 2013 — More than 75 percent of midsize to large businesses are implementing big data-related solutions within the next 12 months — with customer care, marketing and sales departments increasingly driving demand, according to new Microsoft Corp. research released today.

Big Data Infographic February 10, 2013 The explosion of devices, apps, the cloud and the Internet has ushered in the era of big data. Survey results uncover several key trends as companies grapple with big data and start to use it to gain a competitive advantage.

Downloads: Web | Print

According to Microsoft’s “Global Enterprise Big Data Trends: 2013” study of more than 280 IT decision-makers, the following trends emerged:

• Although the IT department (52 percent) is currently driving most of the demand for big data, customer care (41 percent), sales (26 percent), finance (23 percent) and marketing (23 percent) departments are increasingly driving demand.

• Seventeen percent of customers surveyed are in the early stages of researching big data solutions, whereas 13 percent have fully deployed them; nearly 90 percent of customers surveyed have a dedicated budget for addressing big data.

• Nearly half of customers (49 percent) reported that growth in the volume of data is the greatest challenge driving big data solution adoption, followed by having to integrate disparate business intelligence tools (41 percent) and having tools able to glean the insight (40 percent).

The company published its findings to the Microsoft News Center this morning, kicking off a week of announcements focused on the company’s big-data customers, products and future investments.

Microsoft “Big Data Week”

“Big data can be large tables of structured data, huge files of complex unstructured data, or small amounts of machine-generated data that pile up faster than you can make sense of it,” said Eron Kelly, general manager of SQL Server at Microsoft. “Microsoft’s goal is to help everyone make better, faster decisions by providing tools that make it easy to find insights in big data, small data … any data.”

Big data is changing the way organizations and people do business, discover insights and interact with one another. This week Microsoft will embark on a week of digital storytelling that showcases what customers, partners, the industry and Microsoft are doing to bring this vision to life:

• Today: “Global Enterprise Big Data Trends: 2013” and insight from big data executives and analysts

• Tuesday, Feb. 12: Spotlight on big data early adopters, including a Q&A with The Weather Channel Chief Information Officer Bryson Koehler on how big data is transforming his company

• Wednesday, Feb. 13: Microsoft’s big data approach, investments and products

• Thursday, Feb. 14: Silicon Valley big data event highlights

• Friday, Feb. 15: The future of big data and machine learning within Microsoft Research, including a Q&A with MSR Researcher Eric Horvitz

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb. 11, 2013 — For the millions of Americans waiting in anticipation for the president’s State of the Union address on Feb. 12 at 9 p.m. EST, Bing and FOX News Channel have partnered to launch the first-of-its-kind Bing Pulse online voting tool, which enables Americans to track and share opinions in real time during the president’s State of the Union speech. The Bing Pulse is part of a comprehensive State of the Union experience at Bing.com/Politics. The site provides a single destination for up-to-the-minute political news, expert information, real-time conversations and social sentiment on major policy issues.

The number of Americans who crave a more interactive political experience is growing, according to a recent Bing survey showing that nearly 75 percent of people identified themselves as active participants or observers in online political discussions.* Powered by Bing search technology and its unique social search experience, Bing’s State of the Union site is a nonpartisan online destination that was launched to meet this growing need for up-to-the-minute political information and second-screen experiences that are a great companion to political broadcasts.

Bing.com/Politics will keep people in the know from a vast number of news sources and social feeds, including a live stream of the State of the Union address, expert commentary, real-time social media sentiment tracking and more, such as the following:

• A live feed of President Obama’s State of the Union address at Bing.com/politics, including commentary from FOX News Channel political experts. FoxNews.com will also feature additional analysis and commentary including multiple live video streams along with photo galleries from the event. Viewers can log on at http://www.foxnews.com/sotu.

• The Bing Pulse online poll, which will feature updated results every few seconds throughout the speech. Unlike typical polls, Bing Pulse will allow people to self-identify as male or female, register their party affiliation, and join the conversation. It will feature a live count of the number of “pulses,” or votes, along with a line graph of how users react to language and issues throughout the speech. Data will be split by gender and political affiliation.

• Real-time news results using the Bing news selector that helps people navigate the news by filtering coverage from left-leaning and right-leaning sources.

• Live sentiment analysis via Bing Beat, which will focus on real-time social sentiment across major issues, such as immigration, gun control and the fiscal cliff.

• Original videos of former President Jimmy Carter and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich offering commentary on the State of the Union address.

• A live feed of social conversations on Twitter so people can stay informed on what leading political pundits are saying about the speech.

“Bing.com/Politics is the best second-screen viewing companion for the State of the Union address,” said Mark Penn, corporate vice president, Microsoft. “Bing uniquely offers a holistic view of information, reaction and even sentiment during this key political moment in America. Our strategic partnership with FOX News Channel allows us to provide the data Americans want to see most, and Bing Pulse will set the bar for live polls of the modern age.”

Bing.com/Politics is the place to join the conversation and see another reason for people to choose Bing over Google.

About Bing

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft. It was introduced in 2009 with a mission to empower people with knowledge — to answer any question and provide useful tools to help you best accomplish your goals, from the everyday to the extraordinary.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

* The Bing research was based on a survey by Impulse Research Corp., an independent research company based in Los Angeles, Calif. The survey was conducted online in October 2012 with a random sample of 1,005 men and women, ages 18 to 34, who use the Internet for information on a regular basis — all members of the Impulse Research proprietary online panel. The Impulse Research proprietary online panel has been carefully selected to closely match U.S. population demographics, and the respondents are representative of American men and women, ages 18 to 34.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

NEW YORK — Feb. 8, 2013 — Microsoft Corp. announced the Microsoft Surface family of PCs is growing with Surface Pro, the newest member of the Surface family, along with a number of new products and accessories available tomorrow. Surface Pro with Windows 8 Pro is perfect for customers and businesses looking for the power and performance of a PC in a tablet package, and, starting tomorrow, it will hit physical and virtual shelves in the United States and Canada at all Microsoft retail stores and microsoftstore.com and at Staples and Best Buy in the United States and Best Buy and Future Shop in Canada.

New Products

Also starting tomorrow, customers will be able to purchase several new Surface products and accessories, letting them further personalize their computing experiences and be more productive.

• Surface RT with Windows RT will be available in a new 64GB(1) standalone version for an estimated retail price of US$599 to allow customers the option of selecting a cover of their choice.

• Customers will be able to purchase a Wedge Touch Mouse Surface Edition for an estimated retail price of US$69.95 in all markets where Surface is currently sold,(2) with additional markets to follow in the coming weeks.(3)

• Three new Touch Cover Limited Editions in red, magenta and cyan will be available for an estimated retail price of US$129.99 in all markets where Surface is currently sold.(2)

Market Expansion

Microsoft also confirmed today that a substantial increase in market availability of Surface RT will take place on Feb. 14, bringing Surface RT to Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

“We are thrilled to expand the Surface family with the release of Surface Pro,” said Panos Panay, corporate vice president, Microsoft Surface. “The launch of Surface Pro marks a pivotal moment for customers who can now do more with their machines than ever before. Within the Surface family, customers will be able to choose a combination of devices that best suit their needs: Surface Pro, which provides the power and performance of a laptop in a tablet package, or Surface RT, which offers the convenience of a tablet with some laptop capabilities so you can get things done.”

On Oct. 26, Microsoft released Surface RT — a device representative of a tablet with some laptop capabilities that weaves productivity and mobility into one beautiful product. Surface RT is great for people looking for all-day battery life (up to 8 hours battery life) and an entertainment-first experience with the ability to still get some work done. The newest addition to the Surface family, Surface Pro, is more like a full-blown Windows 8 Pro laptop that also boasts tablet capabilities. Now, customers can have a fully functional PC that looks, feels and acts like a tablet. With Surface Pro, customers can do virtually everything they’ve ever done on a PC, ranging from using traditional desktop applications to enjoying the protection of world-class safety and security technologies.

The Surface family of PCs represents an extension of the Windows experience, letting customers work, play and connect with others. From an ultralight durable casing, integrated kickstand and covers that allow customers to be productive anywhere to a full-sized USB port, 16:9 widescreen, high-definition display and 22-degree angle that make it optimal for viewing and sharing content easily, the Surface products let customers seamlessly transition between entertainment and creation.

Additional details on Surface are available at http://www.Surface.com, the Surface Blog and Surface on Facebook. Those interested can follow Surface or Panos Panay on Twitter for additional updates.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

(1) System software uses significant storage space; your storage capacity will be less. See surface.com/spec. 1GB equals 1 billion bytes.

(2) Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and the United States

(3) Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. — Feb . 6 , 20 13 — Today, Outlook.com launched Don’t Get Scroogled by Gmail, a national campaign at http://www.scroogled.com to educate Americans about Google’s practice of going through the contents of all Gmail emails to sell and target ads. According to a public GfK Roper study, commissioned by Microsoft Corp., 70 percent of consumers don’t know that major email providers routinely engage in the practice of reading through their personal email to sell ads — something that 88 percent of people disapprove of once they are informed. Unlike Gmail, Outlook.com doesn’t go through the content of users’ emails to show ads. Outlook.com hopes this campaign will help educate consumers about Google’s email practices and promote Outlook.com’s policy of prioritizing the privacy of its users’ emails.

To help consumers have their voice heard, today Outlook.com launched a petition to help them get the message to Google that going through personal email messages to sell ads is unacceptable. Outlook.com encourages consumers to sign the petition at Scroogled.com and tell Google to stop going through their emails to sell ads. Outlook.com encourages consumers to prioritize their privacy by switching to Outlook.com.

How Google Uses Personal Email Content to Sell Ads

Google goes through every single word of personal Gmail messages and uses that information to sell and target ads. As Google explains on its website, “In Gmail, most of the ads we show appear next to an open email message and are related to the contents of the current email conversation or thread.” For example, if you write a friend to let her know you are separating from your husband, Google sells ads against this information to divorce lawyers, who post ads alongside it. Or if you ask a friend for vacation suggestions, Google uses this information to target you with ads from travel agencies or airlines that want your business.

Google even goes through emails from non-Gmail users to generate advertising income. Gmail goes through all incoming email messages, from any email provider, and sells ads based on the content of those emails — a practice that nearly 90 percent of Americans agree should end.

Unfortunately even if they try, consumers cannot stop Google from going through their personal email for the purpose of showing them targeted ads. Google does not enable Gmail users to opt out of seeing ads based on the content of emails.

There are currently six active class action lawsuits against Google, all alleging illegal eavesdropping or interception under federal and state wiretapping laws, related to Google’s scanning of emails.

“Emails are personal — and people feel that reading through their emails to sell ads is out of bounds,” said Stefan Weitz, senior director of Online Services at Microsoft. “We honor the privacy of our Outlook.com users, and we are concerned that Google violates that privacy every time an Outlook.com user exchanges messages with someone on Gmail. This campaign is as much about protecting Outlook.com users from Gmail as it is about making sure Gmail users know what Google’s doing.”

New GfK Roper P oll: Public L argely U naware and S trongly D isapprove s of the P ractice

A new GfK Roper poll, commissioned by Microsoft, shows that only 30 percent of Americans are aware that any email service goes through the content of personal emails to sell ads, and 88 percent of consumers disapprove of this practice.

Key results from this survey include the following:

• 88 percent of Americans disapprove of email service providers scanning the content of their personal emails in order to target ads, and 52 percent disapprove strongly.

• 89 percent of Americans agree that email service providers should not be allowed to scan the content of personal emails in order to target ads.

• 83 percent of Americans agree that email service providers scanning the content of their personal emails to target ads is an invasion of privacy.

• 70 percent of Americans didn’t believe or didn’t know that any major email service provider scans the content of personal emails in order to target ads.

• 88 percent of email users believe that email service providers should allow users to “opt out” if they prefer that the content of their emails not be scanned in order to target ads.

Outlook.com believes users should be informed about Google’s email privacy intrusions and consumers should know they have a choice to switch to Outlook.com.

About the Don’t Get Scroogled Campaign

With the Don’t Get Scroogled by Gmail consumer education campaign, Outlook.com is doing two things: First, it is highlighting Google’s practice of going through the personal contents of emails to benefit Google’s bottom line ahead of the user. Outlook.com has launched this education campaign and petition to help consumers get the message to Google that going through personal email messages to sell ads is unacceptable. Second, Outlook.com wants to highlight that it is an email service that puts consumers’ privacy first.

Beginning today and continuing for the next few weeks, the Outlook.com-sponsored Don’t Get Scroogled activities will appear online and offline, demonstrating why consumers should be concerned and helping them take action. Outlook.com is also calling on consumers to join the petition drive to tell Google to stop going through their users’ email to sell ads. Consumers can also visit http://www.scroogled.com to get information about Google’s practices and updates on the situation.

“Outlook.com believes your privacy is not for sale,” Weitz said. “We believe people should have choice and control over their private email messages, whether they are sharing banking information or pictures of their family or discussing their medical history.”

Weitz added, “Outlook.com does not scan the contents of your personal email to sell ads. Outlook.com is an email service that prioritizes your own and your family’s privacy. You wouldn’t let the post office look inside your mail, so why would you let Google?”

More information about how Outlook.com prioritizes your privacy can be found at http://www.scroogled.com.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

About this study: The RDD telephone survey was conducted Feb. 1-4, 2013 by GfK’s Public Affairs & Corporate Communications division, among a nationally representative sample of 1,006 adults ages 18 or older. Interviews were conducted with 753 respondents on landlines and 253 respondents on cellular telephones. The data were weighted on age, sex, education, race and geographic region. The margin of error on results based on the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

REDMOND, Wash. - Feb. 5, 2013 - “Microsoft has provided a $2 billion loan to the group that has proposed to take Dell private. Microsoft is committed to the long term success of the entire PC ecosystem and invests heavily in a variety of ways to build that ecosystem for the future.

“We're in an industry that is constantly evolving. As always, we will continue to look for opportunities to support partners who are committed to innovating and driving business for their devices and services built on the Microsoft platform.”

NAIROBI , Kenya — Feb . 5, 201 3 — Microsoft Corp., in collaboration with the government of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communications and Indigo Telecom Ltd., today announced the launch of a pilot project delivering low-cost wireless broadband access to previously unserved locations near Nanyuki and Kalema, Kenya. The network utilizes TV white spaces and solar-powered base stations to deliver broadband access and create new opportunities for commerce, education, healthcare and delivery of government services.

This pilot is part of Microsoft’s broader 4Afrika Initiative (see related release), to help improve the continent’s global competitiveness. A core goal of the 4Afrika Initiative is to facilitate access to technology for the masses and to empower African students, entrepreneurs, developers and others to become active global citizens.

TV white spaces, the unused portions of wireless spectrum in the frequency bands generally used for television, are particularly well-suited for delivering low-cost broadband access to rural and other unserved communities. Radio signals in the TV bands travel over longer distances and penetrate more obstacles than other types of radio signals and, therefore, require fewer base stations to provide ubiquitous coverage. Microsoft intends to use this pilot and other similar initiatives to encourage African governments to make the needed legal and regulatory changes that would allow this type of technology to be deployed continentwide.

“Microsoft was built on the idea that technology should be accessible and affordable to the masses, and to date, this promise has remained unfulfilled in Africa,” said Louis Otieno, Legal and Corporate Affairs director for Africa initiatives at Microsoft. “This technology has the potential to deliver on the promise of universal and affordable high-speed wireless broadband for Africa, and we are proud and humbled to be part of this important effort.”

The project is the first deployment of TV white space technology in Africa targeted at communities without access to broadband or electricity and is a result of a memorandum of understanding that presents a framework of cooperation between Microsoft, the Kenyan Ministry of Information and Communications and industry partner Indigo Telecom. To date, work in this space in Africa has exclusively focused on demonstrating the technical feasibility of using TV white space technology. This project takes an important next step forward by instead focusing on assessing the commercial feasibility of delivering low-cost access using TV white space technology.

The initial installation near Nanyuki includes five customer locations: the Burguret Dispensary (healthcare clinic), Male Primary School, Male Secondary School, Gakawa Secondary School and Laikipia District Community Library. The installation in Kalema will begin with a base station that connects to a government of Kenya agricultural extension office. Fourteen more locations on the network will be added in the coming months. The network will also feature white space radios manufactured by Adaptrum.

Utilizing the latest Window 8 tablets, Windows 8 applications and Microsoft Office 365, Indigo will provide computer labs and instruction to each school and the library and work with community leaders and local companies to identify the most beneficial services and applications for each location, including in the agriculture and education spaces.

“Indigo is committed to finding and deploying the best solutions for our customers’ needs, which in this case means bringing broadband access to previously unserved communities,” said Peter Henderson, chairman of Indigo Telecom, the local Internet service provider partnering in the project. “Beyond simply providing access, we have given the community a real stake in the pilot’s success by creating a cooperative to manage the project, an effort that included hiring and training a local community member to serve as the lab technician.”

“TV white spaces and efficient spectrum management represent a creative, tested and affordable way of extending broadband access to unserved communities,” said Paul Garnett, director in Microsoft’s Technology Policy Group. “Kenya is one of the countries leading the way in using this innovative solution, and we hope regulators around the world take note and develop legal frameworks that support broader commercial deployment of TV white space technology in their own jurisdictions.”

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

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