Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Breaking European Privacy Laws While Distracting the Public: The Evidence (a Formal 91-Page Report)

"This latest attack marks a return to Microsoft’s longtime practices. And it’s no coincidence that Microsoft’s newfound interest in attacking us comes on the heels of the SolarWinds attack and at a moment when they’ve allowed tens of thousands of their customers — including government agencies in the U.S., NATO allies, banks, nonprofits, telecommunications providers, public utilities, police, fire and rescue units, hospitals and, presumably, news organizations — to be actively hacked via major Microsoft vulnerabilities. Microsoft was warned about the vulnerabilities in their system, knew they were being exploited, and are now doing damage control while their customers scramble to pick up the pieces from what has been dubbed the Great Email Robbery. So maybe it’s not surprising to see them dusting off the old diversionary Scroogled playbook."

--Google's Official Blog this week



Video download link



Summary: Today's video examining the report, which includes hard evidence, of Microsoft's privacy violations (never mind privacy failures due to security breaches, which have become more than routine)

THE NINTH part of the ongoing series has just been published. Cited in this part was this report [PDF] from/for Dutch authorities. We've made a local copy of this report and produced an HTML version (it's long!) as we typically do when it comes to historically significant documents. They tend to vanish after less than a decade (not just broken links but lack of copies anywhere except the Internet Archive).



It is no secret that Microsoft keeps breaking the privacy laws, it keeps losing control of its data (due to security reasons, not just deliberate neglect and law-breaking), and it always gets away with it, somehow, owing to political clout. Look no further than yesterday's report about those billionaires grifting billions of dollars (taking away money from taxpayers in the name of "relief"), this time because of their very own failures at security. It's incredible, isn't it? It's just about as ridiculous as that sounds; they're being rewarded for breaking the law and making bad products at the expense of the public, which shoulders the cost induced by corporate failure (some might call this "communism"). Here's a quick reminder that Microsoft's total incompetence is being excused using racist tactics (based on claims later disproved) and a new article entitled "Microsoft could reap more than $193m in new US cyber spending" by Joseph Menn, Christopher Bing and Raphael Satter. To quote:

Microsoft stands to receive nearly a quarter of Covid relief funds destined for US cybersecurity defenders, angering some lawmakers who don't want to increase funding for a company whose software was recently at the heart of two big hacks.

Congress allocated the funds at issue in the Covid relief bill after two enormous cyber attacks leveraged weaknesses in Microsoft products to reach into computer networks at federal and local agencies and tens of thousands of companies.

One breach attributed to Russia in December grabbed emails from the Justice Department, Commerce Department and Treasury Department.



Notice the attempts to blame nations rather than the company that makes faulty products.

NL ReportEither way, the EPO has outsourced to a vendor notorious for security failures. Azure was recently cracked, Microsoft's own systems and network got breached (they belatedly admitted this), and just about everyone deploying Exchange for E-mail got pale in the face. Trillions of E-mail messages are floating everywhere, waiting for yet-unknown victims of espionage, blackmail and so on.

The video discusses what it means for António Campinos to outsource the EPO's data, including data associated with EPO staff and stakeholders, to Microsoft. This Microsoft iscandal is a lot worse than Benoît Battistelli's Microsoft scandal (giving preferential treatment for Microsoft, which lobbies the EPO for illegal European software patents).

Part 10 of the series will be published later today, focusing again on the GDPR. We've meanwhile noticed that in Twitter the FFII and Mr. Schrems talk about the series. There are already consequences, which is why the EPO was fast to issue face-saving communications to all staff.

Image credit: the Dutch report on Microsoft's privacy violations [PDF]. Notice "ActiveX" in there.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Representing and Speaking for Animals
If I ever choose to take this matter to tribunal with animals-centric NGOs on my side, it'll get some press coverage for sure
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Slop Images in VentureBeat, Linux Foundation Spam Made With LLM Slop and Slop Images
The only relief or upside - if any exists - is that the pace of slop was down a bit this week
 
Financiers and Sponsors of the Slop Hype (Pyramid Scheme Waiting to End, Bubble That Will Inevitably Implode)
It's also burning the planet
Slopwatch: Fake Articles About "Linux", Google Helps Ponzi Schemes and Slopfarms in Google News
Slopfarms are a real pain
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Retiring at 62 and URL Filtering HTTP(S) Proxy on Qubes OS
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Lisa Cook Sues Convicted Felon and Backdoor Mandate in UK Resisted
Links for the day
Links 29/08/2025: Arti 1.5.0, War on Public Health (CDC), and Slop 'Bros' Made to Pay for Their Mass Plagiarism
Links for the day
No, 4Chan is Not Fighting for You by Lawyering Up Against Ofcom (UK)
Don't mistake proto-fascists for people who "fight for you". They don't.
Downlplaying the Impact of "UEFI 9/11" is a Losing Strategy
we won't publish much whilst on holiday
In Many Places in the World Vista 11 "Market Share" is Going Down, Not Up
In some countries Windows is already down to third place or lower
More Microsoft-Connected Layoffs, at Least Third Time This Month! (Also Another Death on Campus)
Microsoft as a "gaming" company is where studios, projects, games, and even developers come to die
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 28, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 28, 2025
Gemini Links 29/08/2025: Poems, Games, and Java 25 Performance
Links for the day
Links 28/08/2025: Greenland 'Interferences' by US and Skinnerboxes to Get Banned in Korean Schools
Links for the day
Richard Stallman (RMS) Talk in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress Will be Remote
This past week RMS received lots of accolades online
The Register MS (Run by Microsoft Operatives): Free Software is Putin, Hence Evil and Dangerous
The current editor in chief is an American Microsofter, the previous one went to work for Google (US)
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025