This petition to Microsoft is a direct request from consumers to have them develop an update for windows phones in order to make the profanity filters built into the phones an optional feature.

The concept surrounding why the profanity filter exists is understood, in a time where the autocorrect features of cell phonesconsistently places people in undesirable situations, and people often say things through text based messaging (i.e. emails, text messages, instant messages, etc.) that can be taken out of context or that are not well thought through. It seems that Microsoft does not want their phones to be the cause of people getting into these risky situations, but we think that most people understand it's not the phone's fault. There is a certain level of carelessness, where we should be taking a little personal responsibility, for proofreading the messages we are about to send to someone else.

Given the circumstances encountered in life today, to have an automatic profanity filtration feature seems right to a certain extent (on paper anyway) to avoid texting your boss something filthy that should have gone to a friend, a spouse, or a significant other who wouldn't have any issues with receiving it.

As such, we don't disagree that a profanity filter should be a feature available to any user of any cell phone, especially windows phones. Even if the phone comes preconfigured to have the profanity filter setting turned on. However, that it can't be altered or turned off at all seems to teeter on the fence of interfering with personal liberties and freedom of speech.

Of course, Microsoft doesn't censor these words completely or entirely block users from sending any profanity at all, as we are simply forced to type them in ourselves instead of simply using the Swype feature or having them preloaded in the dictionary and available to us like all other words. Users are even forbidden from entering them into the phone's dictionary themselves, as the operating system does not offer any ways to accomplish this with words that are considered profane.

Therefore, the appropriate solution would be to simply have the profanity filters for the various text based messaging systems on the phone be a setting that can be turned on or off at the user's discretion. As mentioned earlier, there is no disputing the fact that the phones should be sold to consumers having the feature preconfigured to be on, but argue that it should be a feature controlled by the user not the company.

Please Microsoft, let people make their own decisions. Make the profanity filters optional. It's only right, and constitutional.

Sincerely,

Users Who are Responsible for Their Own Language