--Philippe Kahn
Now I'm asking myself, how does this Microsoft employee come to be calling my place of business? I certainly don't post my company phone number on the Boycott Microsoft site.
Simple really -- he's noticed that the Boycott Microsoft directory is set up as a subdirectory to another web site. "Ah-ha," he's probably thinking, "this account belongs to a business. I'll bet some employee of this company is camping out on this account without the boss knowing about it!" So he follows the directory backwards, finds the company phone number, and calls asking for the webmaster.
[...]
At first, this entire incident made me furious. How on earth could this be any of Microsoft's business? And what astonishing insolence to call a place of business with the confidence that, on Microsoft's tip-off, we would take some sort of action against one of our employees. Good Lord, who do these people think they are?
Does this kind of petty harassment of critics constitute official Microsoft policy? That's doubtful. But would an employee of any other company even consider taking unilateral action to silence a critic by tattling to his boss? Official policy or not, this employee thought it was the right thing to do, and that alone is telling.
So in retrospect, infuriating as this incident was, I did learn something useful about the corporate culture at Microsoft. Unfortunately, it confirmed my worst suspicions: intimidating, meddlesome and arrogant activities in the service of the company are entirely legitimate.