After it came to light that Microsoft snooped in on a blogger's Hotmail account to get information on an employee, the company has announced some new rules where email privacy is concerned.
From hereon, Microsoft will no longer inspect an email without a warrant. The company did so recently to gather information on an employee who stole trade secrets, and according to Microsoft at the time, the Terms of Service gave the company the rights to snoop around, but not anymore.
"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," according to Brad Smith, Microsoft General Counsel. "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."
Smith also went on to talk about where we are now in a post-Snowden era, and how the company will from now on rely on the right legal process rather than doing the deed itself.
"Although our terms of service, like those of others in our industry, allowed us to access lawfully the account in this case, the circumstances raised legitimate questions about the privacy interests of our customers.
In part, we have thought more about this in the context of other privacy issues that have been so topical during the past year," Brad Smith said. "We've entered a "post-Snowden era" in which people rightly focus on the ways others use their personal information. 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.
While our own search was clearly within our legal rights, it seems apparent that we should apply a similar principle and rely on formal legal processes for our own investigations involving people who we suspect are stealing from us. Therefore, rather than inspect the private content of customers ourselves in these instances, we should turn to law enforcement and their legal procedures."
As it stands, Microsoft has made a bold move without any PR oversight, and that's a great start for the industry. What we need now is for other email providers to come forth and announce a similar plan to help protect customer's privacy from prying eyes, as no company should wield the powers of the relevant authorities.
