Microsoft faces fresh privacy storm...Admits searching private email of user...
March 21, 2014 2:29 am
Microsoft caught up in fresh privacy storm
By Richard Waters in San Francisco
Microsoft on Thursday scrambled to head off a privacy
storm after it was revealed that the software company had searched through the
private email of a blogger it suspected of having received stolen software
code.
The concession marked one of the most damaging privacy
gaffes to hit a leading US technology company since revelations in 2013 that
the country’s National Security Agency had been spying on their users. The
companies involved, including Microsoft, reacted with outrage at the secret
government snooping.
On Thursday, the software company first sought to play
down the outcry over its email search in a statement defending the move, before
following up only hours later with a promise of new and stronger procedures to
reassure users that their privacy would be protected in such cases.
Microsoft’s examination of a user’s Hotmail account took
place after it was tipped off that the account holder, a blogger, had been
handed some stolen lines of code from the Windows 8 operating system. It used
the information to identify and fire an employee accused of taking the code.
The email search was revealed in a case by US prosecutors
against the employee, Alex Kibalko.
Microsoft initially released a statement claiming that,
although it did not have a court order to conduct the search, it had good
reason to believe the blogger had received the code. It added that it searched
users’ email accounts “only in the most exceptional circumstances”.
The company’s privacy policy gives it the right to look
at private information to “protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our
customers”.
Soon after, however, it released a second statement
outlining new steps to reassure users it would not spy on their private
communications.
These would include referring all cases like this to a
former federal judge to seek an independent opinion, based on the same
standards of evidence that would apply if it was seeking an official court
order, said John Frank, deputy general counsel.
“The privacy of our customers is incredibly important to
us, and while we believe our actions in this particular case were appropriate
given the specific circumstances, we want to be clear about how we will handle
similar situations going forward,” Mr Frank said.
Microsoft also discloses twice a year how many searches
such as this that it has carried out – the same level of disclosure that it has
pressed the US government to reveal searches by the NSA.
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