Ad watchdog agrees that Google customers are getting ‘Scroogled’

Take a victory lap, Microsoft: Your claims that Google is “Scroogling” its customers have stood up to scrutiny. The Guardian reports that the Advertising Standards Authority, a U.K. advertising watchdog, has ruled in favor of Microsoft and has said that Google’s data collection practices are a legitimate point of criticism for Microsoft’s “Scroogled” ad campaign. Specifically, the A.S.A. said that “because the ad made clear that the privacy claims were in relation to ad targeting, which Outlook.com does not carry out, we therefore concluded that the ad was not misleading” and that Microsoft well within bounds to call it out. Although Microsoft’s “Scroogled” campaign hasn’t exactly sent users flooding to Windows Phone or Bing, it has highlighted some serious privacy concerns with Google apps and services that Google would probably rather not be associated with.