Microsoft is recycling inactive email accounts for its Outlook, Hotmail and Live services, potentially exposing users to previous owners' private information, according to a new report posted by Dutch website Webwereld.
The software giant's services agreement informs users that they must periodically log in to their Outlook, Hotmail or Windows Live ID accounts to keep them active. It reads:
"The Microsoft branded services require that you sign in to your Microsoft account periodically, at a minimum of every 270 days, to keep the Microsoft branded services portion of the services active, unless provided otherwise in an offer for a paid portion of the services. If you fail to sign in during this period, we may cancel your access to the Microsoft branded services. If the Microsoft branded services are cancelled due to your failure to sign in, your data may be permanently deleted from our servers."
The agreement doesn't specify whether accounts would then be recycled, but Microsoft confirmed this to Webwereld and PCWorld, saying "The email account is automatically queued for deletion from our servers. Then, after a total of 360 days, the email account name is made available again."
Yahoo has also come under fire for recycling email addresses, but the company warns users about this policy in its terms of service.
For its part, Google says it will not recycle usernames, according to its terms of service. Users can never sign up for a Gmail account previously held by another person, even if that account has been deleted for years.
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