Is this a legitimate Microsoft email?

[REDACTED]

Hello everyone.
I just woke up today, and I checked my e-mails. And I received an e-mail from Microsoft, about the changes in the Terms of Services.
But I'm quite paranoid about phishing e-mails, but this time I clicked before checking the sender.
The e-mail is from: msa@communication.microsoft.com

The e-mail doesn't look a phishing one (I didn't oticed any mistakes normally found in phishing ones).
There's some links in the e-mail, but I didn't clicked on them. I also didn't had any type of attachment.
I also searched in the internet, but I didn't find anything about this e-mail.
So, this is a fake one? Or a legitimate one?

Thank you.

[Pondus]

From Microsoft   

[DavidR]

You have to ask yourself:
1. does have MS have your email address ?
2. why would they notify you of a change in the terms of service - you agree to T & S on virtually every software installation.
3. you don't have to click on a link to see the underlying location (what is seen on the screen isn't necessarily the same), when you hover your mouse over it, it should display the url on the screen or status bar at the bottom of the email window.
4. finally do you have the product or service that the email relates to.

I have never had an email from MS in all of my time and I wouldn't expect one. Can you imagine the hundreds of millions of users MS has, this could swamp email servers and or get it added to spam listings.

[Pondus]

1. does have MS have your email address ?
2. why would they notify you of a change in the terms of service - you agree to T & S on virtually every software installation.

1. yes if you have a MS account
2. it is about this > https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoft-eu-us-privacy-shield

[REDACTED]

From Microsoft   

Thank you, where did you checked it?

You have to ask yourself:
1. does have MS have your email address ?
2. why would they notify you of a change in the terms of service - you agree to T & S on virtually every software installation.
3. you don't have to click on a link to see the underlying location (what is seen on the screen isn't necessarily the same), when you hover your mouse over it, it should display the url on the screen or status bar at the bottom of the email window.
4. finally do you have the product or service that the email relates to.

I have never had an email from MS in all of my time and I wouldn't expect one. Can you imagine the hundreds of millions of users MS has, this could swamp email servers and or get it added to spam listings.

1 - Yes, since I have a MS account
2 - It's not the first time they have sent an e-mail for this types of changes, but in this case, it's a new sender, that I never saw anywhere else
3 - I know, I don't go clicking on every link (used to do it, but learned from my mistakes).
4 - Well, Windows?

I just kinda paranoid about phishing, since that there's a probability of an e-mail looks a legitimate one (even the sender e-mail).

[Pondus]

Did you see the green shield ? it may only be wisible when using MS webmail

https://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=efeedd1b-74f1-4ee8-8cf9-84313a3070ad

[REDACTED]

Did you see the green shield ... it may only be wisible when using webmail

https://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=efeedd1b-74f1-4ee8-8cf9-84313a3070ad

That's something really nice, but in my case, I'm using the Mail app from Windows 10, and the e-mail account that received the e-mail  is from Yahoo (and in the Yahoo webmail, only Yahoo e-mails are marked with a symbol).

[DavidR]

@  Nori-chan
I was forgetting that you have to create an account in windows 10 (I have been avoiding this for some time). I'm considering it still, but my thoughts were to create a local account and not an internet account. I had heard that this is better privacy wise, but haven't researched it any further.

So it could well be legit given what Pondus has also said.

[Lotan]

just want to let you know i got the same email too

[REDACTED]

@  Nori-chan
I was forgetting that you have to create an account in windows 10 (I have been avoiding this for some time). I'm considering it still, but my thoughts were to create a local account and not an internet account. I had heard that this is better privacy wise, but haven't researched it any further.

So it could well be legit given what Pondus has also said.

Creating an account will let you to sync some configs between computers, activate windows (with the Anniversary Update, the key is linked to your MS account) and be able to use the Store, where I download some apps.
I bet it must be pretty bad, privacy wise, but well, we can disable some of those privacy issues (I think that Spybot can do it).

just want to let you know i got the same email too

Well, at least I wasn't the only one.

[DavidR]

@  Nori-chan
I was forgetting that you have to create an account in windows 10 (I have been avoiding this for some time). I'm considering it still, but my thoughts were to create a local account and not an internet account. I had heard that this is better privacy wise, but haven't researched it any further.

So it could well be legit given what Pondus has also said.

Creating an account will let you to sync some configs between computers, activate windows (with the Anniversary Update, the key is linked to your MS account) and be able to use the Store, where I download some apps.
I bet it must be pretty bad, privacy wise, but well, we can disable some of those privacy issues (I think that Spybot can do it).
<snip quote>

I bet that MS would like nothing more than to lock everyone into the MS App Store, in much the same way as Apple's App Store. I really do hate walled garden companies to get you locked into their product.

Privacy wise there are some tools that will disable the major ones, but I'm really against having to use those, your privacy shouldn't require you to have to switch off a number of functions to prevent that. Cortana most people thing this helps them, but it helps itself by monitoring what you say and are looking for. This could be used for targeted marketing or sold as anonymous data for marketing companies, to MS you are just another cash cow.

[REDACTED]

@  Nori-chan
I was forgetting that you have to create an account in windows 10 (I have been avoiding this for some time). I'm considering it still, but my thoughts were to create a local account and not an internet account. I had heard that this is better privacy wise, but haven't researched it any further.

So it could well be legit given what Pondus has also said.

Creating an account will let you to sync some configs between computers, activate windows (with the Anniversary Update, the key is linked to your MS account) and be able to use the Store, where I download some apps.
I bet it must be pretty bad, privacy wise, but well, we can disable some of those privacy issues (I think that Spybot can do it).
<snip quote>

I bet that MS would like nothing more than to lock everyone into the MS App Store, in much the same way as Apple's App Store. I really do hate walled garden companies to get you locked into their product.

Privacy wise there are some tools that will disable the major ones, but I'm really against having to use those, your privacy shouldn't require you to have to switch off a number of functions to prevent that. Cortana most people thing this helps them, but it helps itself by monitoring what you say and are looking for. This could be used for targeted marketing or sold as anonymous data for marketing companies, to MS you are just another cash cow.

I never used the Apple Store, so I can't say much about it, but at least most of the programs aren't available in the store since they probably need to run in that metro interface (also run inside of a sandbox, etc), so I don't think it will have all needed programs for normal users (example: Anti-virus, professional-grade programs like full photohop, etc).

[REDACTED]

This is part of a phishing scam !!! Check here: https://www.onlinethreatalerts.com/article/2016/8/4/updates-to-our-terms-of-use-and-privacy-statement-is-a-microsoft-services-agreement-phishing-scam/

[auld_lang_syne]

hope  you  made  the  wise  decision,  nori-chan … and  chose  to  not  click  any  of  the  links  in  the  email … it's  as  davidr  speculated … ms  wouldn't  send  you  email.  this  is  a  dark  era  humanity  is  entering … and  i  see  no  light  at  the  end  of  the  tunnel.  as  you  have  witnessed  from  some  of  the  unsubstantiable  replies … members  post  just  for  attention … they  care  nothing  of  any  ramifications.

this  would  be  especially  imperative  inside  a  company … one's  actions  could  bring  down  a  whole  organization … just  by  opening/clicking  link  inside  email.  the  question  arises … "should  you  forward  the  email  to  your  it-dept  as  a  heads-up?" … obviously,  the  answer  would  be  "no".  there  probably  are  'trackers'  within  the  metadata  of  the  email … alerting  the  hackers  the  chain  of  command  within  your  company.

it's  fairly  easy  to  be  lulled  into  a  false  sense  of  security … one  must  always  be  on  their  toes … when  dealing  with  security  in  commerce.  best  wishes  to  you,  nori-chan … and  others  out  there  as  well.