Isn't it because of Ubuntu the OS sending data home? Doesn't necessarily have to be Microsoft's fault.
Bit further down the thread: > Some speculation that the user spun up a @ubuntu image from a marketplace equivalent. > If you spun up my CoreyOS marketplace image and I did outreach like that, @awscloud would give me the choice of never saying that again, or being booted off of the marketplace. Trust matters. He's right. Then again, MS and Canonical both put ads into core OS components.
Further speculation: I got one of these messages on LinkedIn and absolutely don't have Ubuntu instances in any of my Azure subscriptions, but I had related keywords to both Ubuntu and Azure publicly in my LinkedIn. It seemed like really sketchy yet sadly ordinary B2B spam. Looking at the dude's LinkedIn profile the "at Ubuntu" didn't mean "Canonical" but some skeevy looking US-based consultancy that seems intent on trampling Canonical's trademarks that should have been sued months ago (or worse has an active license that should be revoked ASAP).