Microsoft Again Seeks to Rebut Spying Cooperation

[GandD 5,966]

Microsoft again is seeking to rebut reporting sparked by the Guardian newspaper about how and when the tech giant cooperates in the National Security Agency’s foreign-surveillance efforts. It offers more heat than light on a complex situation.

The Guardian last week reported Microsoft has helped the NSA and law enforcement access users’ emails, files and conversations on Microsoft services such as online chats and Skype calls. The Guardian story, which cited leaked NSA internal documents from Edward Snowden, also said Microsoft worked with the FBI to help intelligence services get around encryption on certain company services.

Microsoft provided a lengthy statement to the Guardian and other news outlets at the time the story was published. Microsoft on Tuesday released a blog post that largely repeated its earlier statements.

In the post Tuesday, for the first time, the company did address the encryption-cracking issue. Microsoft said in its statement that it “does not provide any government with the ability to break the encryption, nor does it provide the government with the encryption keys.”

Yet that’s not exactly what the Guardian claimed. The Guardian said Microsoft worked with the FBI to “come up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption” on online chats via Outlook.com, Microsoft’s Web-based email service.

Microsoft said in the blog post that when required to turn over customer account information to government agencies, it pulls the data “from our servers where it sits in an unencrypted state.”

Microsoft also released Tuesday a new letter from Microsoft’s general counsel to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder repeating the company’s request for permission to say more publicly about how and when it responds to secret court orders to turn over customer account data in U.S. surveillance efforts.

Microsoft last month asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, a group of judges overseeing U.S. spying in national security cases, for permission to disclose more information about government demands for information on Microsoft customers.

In the letter, General Counsel Brad Smith says, “These issues are languishing amidst discussions among multiple parts of the Government, the Constitution itself is suffering and it will take the personal involvement of you or the President to set things right.”

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2013/07/16/microsoft-again-seeks-to-rebut-spying-cooperation/?mod=wsj_streaming_stream

Better?

[Darnell 8,478]

I feel sorry for Mr. Smith, really.

[RGinWA 816]

I tried getting unplugged and just talking to everyone in person.

But everyone was busy online, so it didn't take.

Poor M$, they'll lose .0005% of their market share over this snafu.

That will teach them.