Microsoft Will Stop Spying on Suspected Thieves Email Accounts

http://inthecapital.streetwise.co/2014/03/29/microsoft-will-stop-spying-on-suspected-thieves-email-accounts/



Microsoft Will Stop Spying on Suspected Thieves Email Accounts
Published: March 29th 2014, 3:48pm

Microsoft announced on Friday they will stop sneaking a look at the private emails of people they suspect are stealing and illegally selling their property, drawing a collective "they were doing what now?" from most average Microsoft customers. Turns out those long customer service agreements that very few people read give Microsoft the right to look at any customer's private content if they were suspected of pirating, or even stealing physical property from Microsoft. Despite being legally in the clear, a publicity backlash from a 2012 case where the computer mega corporation did some snooping on a suspected thief's email has led to a reassessment of the "you signed away all your privacy rights" policy.

"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," wrote Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel and executive vice president for legal and corporate affairs in a blog post on Friday. "Instead, we will refer the matter to law enforcement if further action is required. In addition to changing company policy, in the coming months we will incorporate this change in our customer terms of service, so that it’s clear to consumers and binding on Microsoft."

How much this is about the about the negative publicity versus a real change of heart is hard to say of course. Either way, how the kinds of theft Microsoft is worried about will be dealt with without their direct involvement will no doubt be tested soon enough. Interestingly, Smith obliquely credits, or perhaps blames, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and his deluge of leaked information on government surveillance programs for the change.

"We’ve entered a “post-Snowden era” in which people rightly focus on the ways others use their personal information," Smith wrote. "As a company we’ve participated actively in the public discussions about the proper balance between the privacy rights of citizens and the powers of government. We’ve advocated that governments should rely on formal legal processes and the rule of law for surveillance activities."