How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
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Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#2Microsoft's June 7th statement:
"We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it."
One down, several to go. If I were Google/Facebook/Yahoo executives I would be very worried right now as to what soon-to-be-released revelations say about their NSA cooperation. Sure, they may have only done that which was compelled by FISC order, but that won't preclude them from being perceived as culpable.
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#3I don't get Microsoft. Are they really that hypocritical to the core and so shameless? Why in the world would they launch a "privacy" campaign against Google when they're in a glass house themselves, and so vulnerable? Why the hell would they even put themselves on the spotlight like that?
Or are they really that comfortable with lying, that they have no problem attacking others over something, even though they are just as bad, or worse(as this revelation seems to imply) Giving pre-encryption access to NSA? Really Microsoft?
To make things worse, they've just put the guy who came up with that Scroogle crap in charge of their whole marketing department, so expect a lot more hypocritical/nasty stuff like that from Microsoft in the future:
http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-penn-microsofts-master-o...
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#4Marketing: "Your privacy is our priority."
Meaning:
"Microsoft and the FBI had come up with a solution that allowed the NSA to circumvent encryption on Outlook.com chats"
"For Prism collection against Hotmail, Live, and Outlook.com emails will be unaffected because Prism collects this data prior to encryption."
"analysts will no longer have to make a special request to SSO", "this new capability will result in a much more complete and timely collection response". "This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established."
"One document boasts that Prism monitoring of Skype video production has roughly tripled since a new capability was added on 14 July 2012. "The audio portions of these sessions have been processed correctly all along, but without the accompanying video. Now, analysts will have the complete 'picture',"
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#5Microsoft's June 7th statement: "We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it." One down, several to go. If I were Google/Fac…
Scroogled!
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#6Allow me to be surprised this time, I don't see much new here, compared to what we already saw about Prism (all the slides). Maybe the only thing newsworthy this time is that additional documents confirm that Prism exist?
I applaud this article of course, as it gives less chance for unnatural interpretations of the slides that we saw by pro-status-quo writers ("it's not really a direct access") -- now we have additional confirmations it's a "query API" access and a "start real time monitoring" access.
Unrelated, I'm impressed with the absolutely perfect timing for an article on the day when Microsoft presents the new reorg. Heh.
My question remains can anybody recognize something otherwise new here?
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#7small but annoying thing in the article: microsoft≠silicon valley
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#8I don't get Microsoft. Are they really that hypocritical to the core and so shameless? Why in the world would they launch a "privacy" campaign against Google when they're in a glass house themselves, and so vulnerable? Why the hell would they even put themselves on the spotlight like that? Or are they really that comfortable with lying, that they have no problem attacking others over something, even though they are j…
Is there any information that the marketing department at MS was even aware of the PRISM program? It's likely that that program was need-to-know, and anyone who did know couldn't stop MS marketing from doing a campaign based on privacy because that would be revealing a Top Secret program.
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#9All this on the day Microsoft announced their restructuring. They neglected to mention a new division called "NSAlite"
Re: How Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages
#10I don't get Microsoft. Are they really that hypocritical to the core and so shameless? Why in the world would they launch a "privacy" campaign against Google when they're in a glass house themselves, and so vulnerable? Why the hell would they even put themselves on the spotlight like that? Or are they really that comfortable with lying, that they have no problem attacking others over something, even though they are j…
Microsoft often "competes" by trying to strangle competitors revenue streams even when outside their core business, where they are happy to lose billions on Bing and their online division if it also reduces Googles primary revenue stream: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/microsofts-online-sinkhole-8-5...
Since Google's products are essentially "free" to end users, they don't criticize them on value, so they build an anti-Google campaign against how Google makes money, i.e. their strategy of targeted advertising.