Microsoft will no longer snoop on customers’ private communications during investigations of stolen property, the company’s general counsel said on Friday.Instead, the general counsel, Brad Smith, said Microsoft would hand over any such investigations to law enforcement agencies. Those agencies can then obtain court orders to inspect private communications on Microsoft’s various Internet services, which include Outlook.com and Skype.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/28/microsoft-to-stop-inspecting-private-emails-in-investigations/Also see:Microsoft announces privacy changes in wake of blogger’s email search
Microsoft announced an overhaul of its customer service agreement Friday in the wake of angry reactions to the news that it had searched a blogger’s email account in an attempt to discover the identity of an employee leaking its software.”Effective immediately, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves. Instead, we will refer the matter to law enforcement if further action is required,” general counsel Brad Smith said in a blogpost.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/28/microsoft-privacy-changes-bloggers-email-searchMicrosoft changes policy in wake of Hotmail snooping
Microsoft’s mea culpa for its Hotmail snooping is more than just words, with the company making a serious change in policy to accompany its apology.General counsel Brad Smith announced on Friday that Microsoft will change both company policy and customer terms of service.”Effective immediately, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves. Instead, we will refer the matter to law enforcement if further action is required,” Smith said in a blog post.
http://www.cnet.com/news/microsoft-changes-policy-in-wake-of-hotmail-snooping/
