Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

They're Reading Your Mail: Microsoft's ToS, Windows 8 Leak, and Snooping

Posted by timothy on from the learned-it-from-watching-the-nsa dept.

After the recent Windows 8 leak by recently arrrested then-Microsoft employee Alex Kibkalo, Microsoft has tweaked its privacy policies, but also defended reading the email of the French blogger to whom Kibkalo sent the software. "The blogger in question, who remains unidentified, happened to use Hotmail—the investigation began in 2012 before Hotmail's Outlook.com transition—as his primary email account. So as part of its investigation, Microsoft peeked into the blogger's email account to read that person's correspondence with Kibkalo. ... Microsoft says it was justified in searching the blogger's email account, because it had probable cause to believe Kibkalo was funneling trade secrets to the blogger.The company also pointed out that even with its justification for searching the account, it would have been impossible to gain a court order." "The legal system wouldn't have let us" seems a strange argument to defend any act of snooping.

5 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. According to Arrington, Google reads it too by mTor · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Here's what Michael Arrington, former editor of TechCrunch, says:

    I have first hand knowledge of this. A few years ago, Iâ(TM)m nearly certain that Google accessed my Gmail account after I broke a major story about Google.

    A couple of weeks after the story broke my source, a Google employee, approached me at a party in person in a very inebriated state and said that they (Iâ(TM)m being gender neutral here) had been asked by Google if they were the source. The source denied it, but was then shown an email that proved that they were the source.

    The source had corresponded with me from a non Google email account, so the only way Google saw it was by accessing my Gmail account.

    A little while after that my source was no longer employed by Google.

    ABOUT THAT TIME GOOGLE SPIED ON MY GMAIL

  2. Bad summary by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Much as I hate to defend Microsoft, the summary mischaracterises Microsoft's statement. Microsoft is saying that it already had the right to search the mailbox, so a court would not have issued an order. It's like asking a court for permission to search your own house. The court won't issue an order, but that doesn't mean that it would be illegal to do the search.

    I don't know if Microsoft is right in its claim that it would not have been able to get a court order, but let's get the facts straight when criticising Microsoft.

    --
    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    1. Re: Bad summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That is not a universal law. In Europe your landlord can not enter the flat without the tenants permission. It is expressly forbidden.

    2. Re: Bad summary by sribe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A landlord can go into your apartment without your permission also.

      Wrong. Except in cases of emergency, he needs your permission. Unlike what some people think, you do get a few rights when you pay for the use of the apartment...

  3. Scroogled by Microsoft! by hsmith · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here is to Microsofts shit ad campaign "Scroogled" - first they snoop on all Skype communication and now they admit to reading emails LOOKING for things.

    I fully expect the daft ad men at Microsoft to continue their pathetic ad campaign.

    Glass houses and all that.