Last
Updated: July 2008
At Microsoft,
we're working hard to protect your privacy, while delivering products that
bring you the performance, power and convenience you desire in your personal
computing. This privacy statement explains many of the data collection and use
practices of Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (“SQL Server”). This privacy statement focuses
on features that communicate with the Internet. It does not apply to other
online or offline Microsoft sites, products or services.
The information we
collect from you will be used by Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and
affiliates to enable the features you are using and provide the service(s) or
carry out the transaction(s) you have requested or authorized. It may also be used to analyze and improve
Microsoft products and services.
Except as
described in this statement, personal information you provide will not be
transferred to third parties without your consent. We occasionally hire other
companies to provide limited services on our behalf, such as packaging, sending
and delivering purchases and other mailings, answering customer questions about
products or services, processing event registration, or performing statistical
analysis of our services. We will only provide those companies the personal
information they need to deliver the service, and they are prohibited from
using that information for any other purpose.
Microsoft may
access or disclose information about you, including the content of your
communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful
requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft or
our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies
governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such
access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft
employees, customers or the public.
Information that
is collected by or sent to Microsoft by SQL Server may be stored and processed
in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates,
subsidiaries or service providers maintain facilities, and by using a Microsoft
site or service, you consented to any such transfer of information outside of
your country. Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the
U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of
data from the European Union.
SQL Server
contains Internet-enabled features that can collect and send information about
your computer ("standard computer information") to Microsoft.
Standard computer information typically includes information such as your IP
address, operating system version, browser version, and regional and language
settings. In some cases, standard computer information may also include
hardware ID, which indicates the device manufacturer, device name, and version. If a
particular feature or service sends information to Microsoft, standard computer
information will be sent as well.
The privacy
details for each SQL Server feature listed in this privacy statement describe
what additional information is collected and how it is used.
Microsoft is
committed to protecting the security of your information. We use a variety of
security technologies and procedures to help protect your information from
unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the information
you provide on computer servers with limited access that are located in
controlled facilities.
We will occasionally update this privacy statement to reflect changes in
our products and services and customer feedback. When we post changes, we will
revise the "last updated" date at the top of this statement. If there
are material changes to this statement or in how Microsoft will use your
personal information, we will notify you either by posting a notice of such
changes prior to implementing the change or by directly sending you a
notification. We encourage you to periodically review this statement to be
informed of how Microsoft is protecting your information.
If you have
questions about this privacy statement or believe that we have not adhered to
it, please contact us by e-mail at sqlpriv@microsoft.com.
SQL Server Privacy
Statement
Microsoft
Corporation
Customer Experience Improvement Program
What This Feature Does:
The Customer Experience
Improvement Program (CEIP) feature of SQL Server Business Intelligence
Development Studio and SQL Server Management Studio will collect information
about your hardware configuration and how you use our software and services so
that we can identify trends and usage patterns.
This information helps improve the quality, reliability and performance
of Microsoft software and services.
Information Collected, Processed or Transmitted:
The information CEIP
collects includes the type and number of errors you encounter, software and
hardware performance, and the speed of services. We do not collect your name, address or other
contact information.
This
feature generates a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) that is stored on your
computer to uniquely identify it. The GUID is a
randomly generated number; it does not contain any personal information and
will not be used to identify you. CEIP
uses the GUID to distinguish how widespread the feedback we receive
is and how to prioritize it. For example, this number allows Microsoft to
distinguish between one customer having an error 100 times and 100 customers
having the same error once. The GUID is persistent.
Use of Information:
The information collected is used to help improve
Microsoft’s products. Microsoft
employees, contractors and vendors who have a business need to use the data are
provided access as necessary.
You will be given an opportunity to participate in
CEIP during the SQL Server installation.
You can later change your installation choice by following the
instructions below.
To change your CEIP settings:
To turn CEIP on,
click Yes, I am willing to participate.
Important Information:
Key =
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\90
RegEntry name =
CustomerFeedback
Entry type
DWORD:
0 is opt out
1 is opt in
Caution:
For
more information about CEIP, read the CEIP privacy statement at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=124382.
Individual Error Reports allow you to report
problems you may be having with SQL Server and all of its component
products that have user interfaces. Error
reporting for components and services that do not have user interfaces (such as
SQL Server Database Engine, SQL Agent, Analysis Services, Reporting Services,
Notification Services, SQL Replication, the Database Tuning advisor component, SQL
Browser Service and SQL Writer) is handled by the Error
and Usage Reporting Tool, described below.
Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:
Individual Error
Reports collect standard computer information, which is not used to identify you. They do not intentionally collect name,
address, email address, computer name, or any information that will be used to
identify you or contact you. It is possible that such information may be
captured in memory or in the data collected from open files, but Microsoft does
not use it to identify you.
In
rare cases, such as problems that are especially difficult to solve, Microsoft
may request additional data, including sections of memory (which may include
memory shared by any or all applications running at the time the problem
occurred), some registry settings, and one or more files from your computer.
Your current documents may also be included. When additional data is requested,
you can review the data and choose whether or not to send it.
In certain cases,
you may be asked to answer an optional survey after sending an error report. If
you send an error report without sending survey information, none of the
information in your error report is used to identify you. If you choose to
provide a phone number or e-mail address then we may contact you to ask for
additional data that will help us solve a problem. In some cases you may also
be presented with an opportunity to track your error report. If you choose to
track an error your report will be associated with your e-mail address.
We
use the data for diagnosing and solving customer problems and to improve this
and other Microsoft software and services.
Each time an error occurs in a
SQL Server component with a user interface, a report is generated and you are
asked if you want to send this report to Microsoft. You will have an
opportunity to view the information contained in the error report before
choosing whether or not to send the report.
For more details on what information is collected and how it is used,
see the Privacy Statement for the Microsoft Error Reporting Service at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=124385.
The Error Reporting feature gives you the
opportunity to automatically send error reports to Microsoft for SQL Server
components and servers that do not have a user interface and run in the
background, such as SQL Server Database Engine, SQL Agent, Analysis Services,
Reporting Services, Notification Services, SQL Replication, the Database Tuning
advisor component, SQL Browser Service and SQL Writer (“Background Services”). If you consent, the Error Reporting feature
allows you to automatically report problems you may be having with Background
Services to Microsoft and to receive information that may help you get around
or solve such problems.
The Usage Reporting Feature gives you the
opportunity to automatically send usage information to Microsoft. If you consent,
the Usage Reporting feature will collect and send to Microsoft information about
your hardware configuration and which SQL Server features are being used on
that hardware, so we can identify trends and usage patterns.
Information Collected, Processed, or Transmitted:
The Error
Reporting feature collects the same types of information as Individual Error
Reports collects. In addition, the Error Reporting feature of SQL Server
collects extensive information specific to usage at the time of the error
including, for example: machine characteristics (CPU speed, number of
processors, etc.), callstack of faulting threads (or all threads for certain
types of error), execution plans and other execution data, and information
about open files. It may also collect historic information about the behavior
of the operating system and SQL Server, and for certain error types, data page
contents. It is possible that personally identifiable information may be
captured in memory or in the data collected from open files, but Microsoft does
not use it to identify you. Unlike Individual Error Reports described above,
you will not have the opportunity to review the information in the reports
generated by the Error Reporting feature before they are sent.
The Usage
Reporting feature collects information about your hardware configuration, which
features are installed and used by each of the SQL Server products installed on
that hardware and how those features perform. We do not collect your name,
address or other contact information. This feature also generates a GUID that is
stored on your computer to uniquely identify it. The GUID is a randomly generated number; it
does not contain any personal information and will not be used to identify
you.
The
data sent by the Error and Usage Reporting is used to track down and solve
problems that users are experiencing and to help improve Microsoft’s
products. The usage reports are used by
the Customer Experience Improvement Program, which helps us make better software.
By participating in this program, you are directly influencing how our software
is designed.
During setup, you will be
offered the opportunity to automatically send error and usage reports to
Microsoft. To later turn these features
on or off, use the Error and Usage Reporting Tool, which is available by clicking
on the Start menu, Programs, SQL Server 2005, Configuration Tools, SQL Server
Error and Usage Reporting.
Some error reports
may be sent to Microsoft even if you choose not to use the SQL Server Error
Reporting feature if you have configured Windows to use Microsoft Error
Reporting.
For each SQL
Server Books Online Help topic, you can provide feedback to the SQL Server
documentation team regarding whether the content was useful. At the bottom of
each Help topic, you will see the question “Was this information helpful?” If
you click the Yes button or the No button, an e-mail message will be generated
in your e-mail client, and the subject line of that e-mail message will be
automatically populated with information about the content you are commenting
on. You can add your specific feedback regarding the content in the body of
this e-mail message.
To provide the SQL
Server Documentation team with the necessary context information regarding your
feedback, the subject line of the feedback e-mail message will contain some or
all of the following information: the topic title, the product name, the
product version, the documentation version, the name of the Help file, the
topic URL, the topic rating (which varies depending on whether you clicked Yes
or No), the type of Help file (.chm or .hxs), the language you are using (for
example, English), and the version number of the Help feedback script. Note
that if the Help topic is in the .chm Help format, the Help file’s installation
path on your computer may also be included.
The information
you provide is used by the SQL Server Documentation team in order to make
corrections or enhancements to the documentation provided with SQL Server.
The feedback
e-mail message is not generated unless you click Yes or No, and the e-mail
message is not sent to Microsoft unless you click Send in your e-mail client.
Your e-mail
address is not used for marketing purposes unless you have given consent for
that purpose.
The Online Content
feature enables you to query online Web sites automatically when performing a
search, including Microsoft’s MSDN Online Web site and third-party community
Web sites. In addition, you can get information from these same Web sites in
response to pressing the F1 key on language keywords in the code window.
In order to return
relevant results, the Online Content feature transmits to MSDN Online and any
other third-party Web sites you designate in the Online Content option
information including standard computer information, the search text string you
entered or the keywords associated with the language keyword you pressed F1 on,
and the sources to be searched (such as MSDN Online).
The information is
used to respond to the search query or F1 key press. Microsoft also uses this information to
develop new content and revise existing content.
By default, SQL
Server will search for help only on your computer. No information is sent to Microsoft if you do
not choose to use the Use Online Content setting. To choose your search
settings:
1.
Within Books
Online, select Help at the top of
the screen, select Tools, then
select Options, and then select Online.
2.
Select one of the
following three options: Try Local Only, Not Online; Try Local First, then Online; or Try Online First, then Local.
3.
In the Search Providers box, you can select or
deselect any of the providers and, using the up/down arrows, you can set the
order that search providers are used.
4.
Then click OK.
This disclosure
only covers interactions with MSDN Online; how other designated Web sites
collect and use search information depends on the particular site selected. For more information about MSDN Online’s
privacy practices, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=124386.