Microsoft has published reports of recent requests for data made by government law enforcement agencies. They are joining companies like Google and Twitter that publish these reports to provide transparency to their millions of customers. According to announced plans, the Microsoft report will be updated every six months and will show the number of request made by government agencies to obtain information about the users who use their services.
The first report showed that five countries, including the U.S., accounted for 69% of the total requests made to Microsoft, which totaled 70, 665 requests. Microsoft provided what is called “noncontent data” for 80% of the requests made, which includes I.P. addresses, account holders names, sex, e-mail address, country of residence and data traffic timestamps. Just over 2% of the requests Microsoft received asked for content from emails or information from SkyDrive (Microsoft’s cloud computing service). More than 1,500 cases that asked for communication content were provided to U.S. agencies, while other countries including Brazil, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand received 14 disclosures from the company about users.
Law enforcement agencies are requesting information about users and the Microsoft services they use, including Hotmail, Xbox Live, Skype, SkyDrive and Outlook.com. These services require users to provide personal information to gain access to the services. Brad Smith, executive vice president at Microsoft, wrote in a blog post that his company, like all global businesses, must comply with law enforcement and will do so for agencies that issue subpoenas or warrants for information.
In 2010, Google began to report the number of legal requests they received and they were the first major company to release such reports. Companies like Apple and Yahoo have yet to provide transparency reports about the requests made to them by government agencies.
The transparency reports from Microsoft include more detail than many other companies provide. Included in their report are breakdowns about how they are handling the information requests. The reports published show the reasons why information requests are rejected and show requests for noncontent data separately. However, Microsoft has not disclosed information about requests they have received for Skype user information. The Skype reports will be included in the next set of reports, according to the company.
