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Microsoft Releases 2012 Law Enforcement Requests Report

Posted by timothy on from the why-since-you-asked dept.

wiredog writes "Microsoft has released a report of all the subpoenas and other requests it got from law enforcement in 2012, and the way it responded to them. This is similar to the Google Transparency Report."

12 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. I like how we file Microsoft articles under Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Eventually we will boil it down to two categories: Linux and other shit.

  2. Re:Microsoft and US Gov attempting to ban HOSTS fi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sure thing, Slashdot user two million eight hundred thousand eight-seven.

  3. holy tied tongue, bat nerds by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I am glad to see I am not the only one who deos not know what to say about this. We all want to bash MS, but here they actualyy did something pro-consumer/pro-society without a legal mandate to do so. What can be said?
    Sorry microsoft, I am still not going to reccomend windows 8 though.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
    1. Re:holy tied tongue, bat nerds by Nerdfest · · Score: 2

      If their competition does it, they look pretty bad not doing it. Perhaps they can release a bribery report on those interactions with government next.

    2. Re:holy tied tongue, bat nerds by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      hahaha. It's funny cuz it's true. And sad. Kinda like Walmart with that whole mexican bribery thing. Haven't heard peep about that in months. Looks like the giant beast gets away with yet more bullshit.

  4. Re:How about Intelligence Agncies by Synerg1y · · Score: 1

    It mentions the NSA & that they're legally obligated not to disclose those.

  5. Can somebody please explain... by Synerg1y · · Score: 1

    I get that the US is up there, France & Germany have a surprising amount of requests, but I'm pretty sure at least France is a firewall country. But Turkey... what? They have 11k legit internet users?

    They are right up there w the states at 11k, there is no reference to Turkey anywhere in my knowledge of IT and how it applies to the world, so why would they have so many requests.

    1. Re:Can somebody please explain... by Nixoloco · · Score: 1

      I get that the US is up there, France & Germany have a surprising amount of requests, but I'm pretty sure at least France is a firewall country. But Turkey... what? They have 11k legit internet users?

      They are right up there w the states at 11k, there is no reference to Turkey anywhere in my knowledge of IT and how it applies to the world, so why would they have so many requests.

      I found that curious as well. It may be related to the fact that Turkey has a lot of "laws that limit speech deemed insulting to Turkishness, and expressions of political extremism". They are fairly heavy into Internet censorship as well and even blocked all of YouTube for a long time. There are a lot of topics that aren't allowed to report about and they have ongoing legal proceedings against lots of online journalists.

    2. Re:Can somebody please explain... by Synerg1y · · Score: 1

      Never knew Turkey was so heavy on being a police state. I always thought that region was at best a bit lawless. Numbers are numbers though, same # of requests as the states, 1/4 the people. Thanks for the answer, I feel like they've stayed off the radar in the internet censorship debate completely.

  6. Looks like NSL requests went down in 2012 by steelfood · · Score: 1

    I wonder why. Is it because Microsoft is becoming less relevant (in the online world where NSLs would apply), or because there's a reduction in NSLs overall.

    I suspect, considering Google didn't see a similar decline, the former.

    --
    "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
    1. Re:Looks like NSL requests went down in 2012 by robp · · Score: 1

      You should know soon enough--although the administration doesn't want the recipients of NSLs getting too specific, the FBI has to cough up a yearly total. It provided a count for 2011 (16,511 NSLs, covering 7,201 people) on April 30 of last year, so if they stick to that timing we should get last year's total in another month or so.

  7. And once again... by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

    And once again, despite all the noise and hype... the numbers are vanishingly small. Much smaller than you'd expect.

    And no, don't come back with "but they should be zero". That's just ignorant and stupid. The 'net is a central part of a lot of people's lives now and if they're under investigation their 'net activity is and should be part of that, just like phone records, credit card records, etc... etc...