Re:Microsoft Just Killed the "Cover for Me" Excuse: 365 Now ...
by its_ubuntu on Saturday January 31, 2026 @09:50AM
(#46837166)
So that's the VeryGoodCorp example. Now let's do VeryEvilCorp, so it will be closer to the reality of Microsoft. It starts out something like this:
1. VeryEvilCorp builds a "harmless" feature that is not harmless and was never intended to be harmless, despite the pretense.
2. People go along with it because they are blind, stupid sheep who will believe anything they're told, as long as it's in the soft, soothing voice of Big Brother.
3. What is not forbidden is mandatory in this Brave New Tomorrow.
4. Everyone is now enslaved. Congratulations! Your name is Toby.
2. The feature is in fact useful, so most people enable it. It may even become company policy to have it enabled.
3. Companies who buy this feature ask for a way to force their employees to use it, as it's "confusing" if location data is only available for 90% of the employees. Not it's an opt-out feature, in the best case.
4. VeryGoodCorp is in a bit of trouble with its shareholders. Revenue growth hasn't been as great lately. They realize that they are sitting on a mountain of location data, aggregated from multiple harmless features, that would tell its customers if their employees are slacking off at work. Surprisingly, the customers are willing to pay good money for a "employee productivity score".
5. Profit..
Edit: formatting
Edit 2: Now you may say "well that wouldn't be legal", and depending on the jurisdiction I'm sure it isn't. But that hasn't kept VeryGoodCorp from collecting this data, they just forgot to turn off the toggle for EU you know, honest mistake. But they still have the data, and laws can change, or, you know, made to change.. (Prop 22 anyone?)