I guess I don't see the problem here. After reading the article, it seems like Microsoft is looking at publicly available information with two goals in mind: A) Create a search engine to challenge Google, and B) Find a way to combat spam.
This is just data mining, nothing new, except that perhaps it's being looked at by a sociologist for relationships and ranking purposes. Google does something similar via their PageRank technology, and most people are just fine with that (except for
this guy, perhaps).
I'm curious - how do you see Big Brother in this?