Microsoft

I don't hide the fact I hate Microsoft. And yes I live in the Puget Sound where that stupid company is king behind Boeing. They're still a company to be hated, and I learned even more why this week when I had to create an account on a medical laboratory system to retrieve my test results.

The lab no longer mails test results to the patient, only the doctor. They have pushed people to enroll on their Website to review and retrieve their results, and they use Microsoft's HeathVault system for their database which means you have to enroll in Microsoft's database too.

I don't have anything Microsoft and never planned to until now, and even after a month of waiting to get them to mail my results they didn't, I had to enroll in their system, but first I had to enroll in Microsoft's system.

That's bad enough since I don't use Microsoft and they now have my information, but it's worse than that as I learned, because they already had my information even when I've never had anything to do with Microsoft, their services or their products.

I know this because when I created the account they showed me all the places I've lived for the past 35 years and asked which one wasn't correct (one was wrong), down to the street name, and I suspect even the house or apartment number too if they wanted.

I don't know how or where they got the information but that's spooky to me since I haven't dealt with them and haven't put past addresses going back 40 years or so in any on-line database or on any application outside of the government.

What also bothers me is that lab company using Microsoft and their software/database system, which may make work easier for them, doesn't create any sense of security in their customers when they see a software company now has your health information.

And all the privacy laws now under the Affordable Care Act are meaningless as they share this information with any company with an interest disguised as a need. Yeah, you're a customer and a product, a product for them to sell you and your information.

All the more reason to really hate Microsoft more. If I could get out from the lab company I would but it wouldn't change the fact Microsoft still knows more about me than they should, they showed me now and teaching me not doing anything with a company doesn't mean they don't know you or have you information.