The news of Alex, the guy who was hunted down by the FBI for leaking out information from Microsoft, has just been out. And now comes in another shocking news about Microsoft, who stated it has been reading through all email accounts on Hotmail and Outlook.com and does not need court orders to do the same. Microsoft has determined the ID of Alex by looking into Hotmail accounts using the same method and has finally nabbed him.
Microsoft claims that they can do so without first asking for orders from a judge since it is searching its own servers for information regarding a specific case.
Softpedia reported, ‘Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s vice president and general counsel, said in a statement that although the company is free to look into user accounts for specific information, it’s not doing it, and to give users a better sense of privacy. It's also tightening internal policies to make sure that emails are stored securely on its servers.’
“Courts do not issue orders authorising someone to search themselves, since obviously no such order is needed. So even when we believe we have probable cause, it's not feasible to ask a court to order us to search ourselves,” Shaw explained.
“To ensure we comply with the standards applicable to obtaining a court order, we will rely in the first instance on a legal team separate from the internal investigating team to assess the evidence. We will move forward only if that team concludes there is evidence of a crime that would be sufficient to justify a court order, if one were applicable,” he added.
It is going to be very difficult to determine if your emails are secure on Outlook.com presently.
Softpedia also concluded, “Microsoft, on the other hand, says that it’s keen to provide a greater transparency level, so future reports will also include information regarding the number of accounts that got scanned by the company for illegal content. That’s not at all a thing that could calm you down if you’re a privacy advocate, but the company claims, “the privacy of our customers is incredibly important to us.”
