Microsoft isn’t saying whether this video is really one of its productions, but like ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley (who originally got ahold of it), I think it is.

It’s just cheesy enough, and the appearance of the fictional “Contoso” company is a dead giveaway.

Reportedly shown last week at Microsoft’s global sales briefing, it’s part of a concerted effort by the company to raise questions about the privacy implications of Google’s business and communication applications.

Here’s what Kevin Turner, Microsoft’s chief operating officer, had tyhis to say on the subject of Google at the company’s recent Worldwide Partner Conference.

And when you think about the trouble (Google is) getting into with some of their statements, claiming certain things and allegations that they’re dealing with, this is nothing but help to us. We don’t scan your e-mail. We’re not snooping your Wi-Fi. We’re going to continue to do the things we do well, which is help you become more productive.

Keeping in mind that the video was apparently meant for an internal audience, Microsoft takes some creative license, for sure, by personifying the Gmail algorithm that serves up ads next to emails.

Here’s how Google explains the process.

Ad targeting in Gmail is fully automated, and no humans read your email in order to target advertisements or related information. This type of automated scanning is how many email services, not just Gmail, provide features like spam filtering and spell checking. Ads are selected for relevance and served by Google computers using the same contextual advertising technology that powers Google’s AdSense program.

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