Yeah, Microsoft seems to have all the power when it comes to small customers.
And yet their standard contracts don't say "if you give us all your data, we'll do whatever we want with it, tough shit." In fact they say pretty much the opposite of that. Isn't that interesting?
Big companies like MS will apply the same business analysis to their small customer contracts as they do their big contracts--but at scale. If they decide they'll make more money by honoring all the little contracts, they will honor them.
So even small customers need to understand the incentives that help that analysis come out in their favor. They tend to rely more on external incentives like criminal penalties under statutes governing fraud, personal data, medical data, etc., and the potential for negative press coverage.
And yet their standard contracts don't say "if you give us all your data, we'll do whatever we want with it, tough shit." In fact they say pretty much the opposite of that. Isn't that interesting?
Big companies like MS will apply the same business analysis to their small customer contracts as they do their big contracts--but at scale. If they decide they'll make more money by honoring all the little contracts, they will honor them.
So even small customers need to understand the incentives that help that analysis come out in their favor. They tend to rely more on external incentives like criminal penalties under statutes governing fraud, personal data, medical data, etc., and the potential for negative press coverage.