Microsoft Responds To NSA Data Sharing Allegations

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In response to an article in the Guardian on July 11, Microsoft issued the following statement:

“We have clear principles which guide the response across our entire company to government demands for customer information for both law enforcement and national security issues.

First, we take our commitments to our customers and to compliance with applicable law very seriously, so we provide customer data only in response to legal processes. Second, our compliance team examines all demands very closely, and we reject them if we believe they aren’t valid. Third, we only ever comply with orders about specific accounts or identifiers, and we would not respond to the kind of blanket orders discussed in the press over the past few weeks, as the volumes documented in our most recent disclosure clearly illustrate. To be clear, Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product.

Finally when we upgrade or update products legal obligations may in some circumstances require that we maintain the ability to provide information in response to a law enforcement or national security request. There are aspects of this debate that we wish we were able to discuss more freely. That’s why we’ve argued for additional transparency that would help everyone understand and debate these important issues.”
 
That pretty damning stuff. No way I'm gonna have an X-box one with always on kinect in my house. Sony wins this round.

Nate
 
And btw, we'd love for you to put a camera / mic in your conference room! Kthxbye.
 
All of our phones are Cisco IP phones, I imagine tapping into them wouldn't be any harder.

If you have encrypted traffic.. Good luck. Running on IPv6 not going to happen either. You can encrypt CISCO phone traffic. So no its not that much easier. It all depends if the organizations took steps to protect them selves.
 
Boy that sure didn't take long for a response from them. This story was going around the world wicked fast.
 
Quite simple. I do it for a living actually. :D

I agree but then again if you can do it that easily the administrator of the network really is bad at his job.

I encrypt all incoming and outgoing traffic on a servers I have. Makes a bitch to run any kind of network troubleshooting but it also mitigates all possibilities of some one snooping.
 
That pretty damning stuff. No way I'm gonna have an X-box one with always on kinect in my house. Sony wins this round.

Nate

Newsflash not always on , Sony will screw you over, like they have done in the past with DRM. Try and lookup how 4K video media would work.

So whichever you pick it wouldn't matter.
 
Newsflash not always on , Sony will screw you over, like they have done in the past with DRM. Try and lookup how 4K video media would work.

So whichever you pick it wouldn't matter.

Newsflash, It is always on. Don't delude yourself in thinking that turning it off via software when it was designed to collect information for targeted advertisement actually turns it off.
 
If MS is an American company, they should have never responded.

Basically, if they could get their stock to jump 10% by a world war, they would be selling bombs.
 
Newsflash not always on , Sony will screw you over, like they have done in the past with DRM. Try and lookup how 4K video media would work.

So whichever you pick it wouldn't matter.

You are a marketing departments wet dream. Turning it "off" is similar to turning your cell phone's screen off, sure it looks off but it's still on, connected to multiple cell towers, and phoning home constantly about anything and everything.
 
I agree but then again if you can do it that easily the administrator of the network really is bad at his job.

I encrypt all incoming and outgoing traffic on a servers I have. Makes a bitch to run any kind of network troubleshooting but it also mitigates all possibilities of some one snooping.

Well... what I meant is that we "tap" into a stream because the customer lets us.

Cisco has built in recording methods.

"Built in Bridge" is just that. The phone (if supported) literally creates a dual stream of the conversation and can send it to any "recording" machine on the network. Call info is then recorded through TAPI or processed through the sip stream. Either/or.
 
Well... what I meant is that we "tap" into a stream because the customer lets us.

Cisco has built in recording methods.

"Built in Bridge" is just that. The phone (if supported) literally creates a dual stream of the conversation and can send it to any "recording" machine on the network. Call info is then recorded through TAPI or processed through the sip stream. Either/or.

Oh yeah I know.. I do network monitoring I had people fired because of inappropriate web browsing. People sure as shit think they have special rights when working for private companies.
 
So Microsoft makes an announcement when business's start to dump skydrive and assorted projects where the customer no longer has control of there data, at least businesses understand data integrity.
 
I bet they can access entre settings on my compute. Why would snowde release such information if there wasn't some truth in this. Wonder what Bill Gates has to say about which direction his company is headed. It looks like LINUX is new OS for me pretty soon.
 
Oh yeah I know.. I do network monitoring I had people fired because of inappropriate web browsing. People sure as shit think they have special rights when working for private companies.

But think.... with that in mind. Slightly tinfoil hat-ish here...

What would it take for the NSA to pressure someone like Cisco to always have Built in Bridge on and to always point it to an NSA server.

Yea... watch you voice vlans for outgoing traffic to the internet lol.
 
Maybe the government should lay it out all of the table. Hell, declassify everything, bring it all out in the open. I think it would end up like sausage, most wouldn't want to know how it's made.
 
Using an e-mail you don't host yourself for anything other than signing up for websites is idiotic, at best.

Microsoft has openly admitted to collaborating with the state. Any Outlook.com and Office 365 e-mail accounts should be treated as if they have no security because they don't.
 
But think.... with that in mind. Slightly tinfoil hat-ish here...

What would it take for the NSA to pressure someone like Cisco to always have Built in Bridge on and to always point it to an NSA server.

Yea... watch you voice vlans for outgoing traffic to the internet lol.
I think people would notice all the bandwidth would just disappear.
 
If you have encrypted traffic.. Good luck. Running on IPv6 not going to happen either. You can encrypt CISCO phone traffic. So no its not that much easier. It all depends if the organizations took steps to protect them selves.

I am curious as to why people think the government or some branch does not have the ability to decrypt said systems?

With the processing power, and just money , or just power...why not?
 
Microsoft's latest marketing campaign, launched in April, emphasizes its commitment to privacy with the slogan: "Your privacy is our priority."

LMAO. Knowing what continues to leak that proves contrary to Microsoft's PR b.s., anyone that would buy an XBONE and volunteer to put a can/mic in their living room that can't be unplugged and can't be turned around or taped over without halting the system is a fool among fools.

Its incomprehensible that there are so many sheep that actually defend it as a good thing and something they must have at all costs. Reports indicate MS has given the NSA the keys to the castle on every single one of their online services, in some cases like outlook.com provided before they even launched .. Why wouldn't they also have access to XBONE's..

Do I think the government cares about some xbonehead 12 year old screaming into the mic playing CoD, no, the point is the terrible precedent, the slippery slope, the erosion taking place and people picking up shovels unwittingly helping make it happen quicker ..
 
Most people are missing the point that the NSA is collecting all traffic wholesale. What brand of product you use means little. If your traffic touches the internet it is being collected.

The end.
 
Most people are missing the point that the NSA is collecting all traffic wholesale. What brand of product you use means little. If your traffic touches the internet it is being collected.

The end.

Now there's a throw arms in the air cop out, what's on trial here is some companies are seemingly more eager than others to go above and beyond whats being legally demanded with secret letters. The difference between volunteering information and access to their systems, and dragging feet doing no more than what they're compelled. In the guardian report its pretty damning against MS that they're providing universal access to all their online services.

I'd actually count my blessings if I were MS since the guardian didn't rehash the fact they help China use Skype to spy on their citizenry by building a list of hundreds of redflag no-no words into the software and logging when they trigger it.
 
Now there's a throw arms in the air cop out, what's on trial here is some companies are seemingly more eager than others to go above and beyond whats being legally demanded with secret letters. The difference between volunteering information and access to their systems, and dragging feet doing no more than what they're compelled. In the guardian report its pretty damning against MS that they're providing universal access to all their online services.

I'd actually count my blessings if I were MS since the guardian didn't rehash the fact they help China use Skype to spy on their citizenry by building a list of hundreds of redflag no-no words into the software and logging when they trigger it.

You aren't seeing the big picture. Microsoft giving them emails and account info means little to nothing when the NSA is collecting all traffic passing at the major transport backbones anyways. Even if Microsoft were legally entitled to give them nothing (Which they aren't, the patriot act forces them to comply with every request) the NSA would still have all the same information anyways.

People aren't seeing what the real problem is here, and are getting to caught up in basically scape goating these companies. The NSA is the problem here, not Microsoft or whomever.

Again, if you have a device transmitting packets onto the internet those packets are collected whole-sale regardless of the software client you use.
 
All good until the last paragraph which I read is "Yeah, we did it, but we can't talk about it"
 
People aren't seeing what the real problem is here, and are getting to caught up in basically scape goating these companies. The NSA is the problem here, not Microsoft or whomever.

That's just downright unpatriotic, I am sure [H] has complied with FISA court request for information on you already.

:eek:

1984 was a morality tale, sadly our gubbernment seems to look at it as a "playbook." Dems, Reps, doesn't matter, this unmitigated power is mind-blowing.
 
Again, if you have a device transmitting packets onto the internet those packets are collected whole-sale regardless of the software client you use.

While I agree with this, those that give easier access to the government are a bit worse than those that make them work harder for it.

What I don't get it that with all these big privacy issues coming up lately, why are companies like Microsoft still putting in MORE things that cut down on privacy (or perceived privacy, questionable stuff) like the Kinect on Xbox One. If none of this had happened, or if the NSA wasn't called out (and Microsoft), it would be a lot less of a deal. But, now that all this has blown up, it really makes it a big deal.

Kinect always on requirement? I don't care, it's not like anyone is watching. Then - NSA got caught, Microsoft rumors that they are giving away the info with no resistance... Um.... I don't want the Kinect anymore. When you know someone could be watching, it's a different story. Kind of like we thought the NSA and other government agencies were watching, but no one really cared (except for the tin foil hats.... which turned out to be right). Once they were caught watching, people care now and are much more interested in their privacy and security (from the government, not who/what they are protecting us from).
 
Go ahead. We're listening.
xbox-one-kinect-sensor-camera.jpg
 
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