Comments

• your_friend

  2010-02-28 17:01:42

  Oh yes, the issue of local laws is very interesting. The first thing Microsoft says is that all of the information is stored in the US. [Hmmm, searching and quoting the document is difficult. Microsoft innovation has somehow made the visible text return gibberish on cut and paste, quoting manually as if the document were an image.]
  
  

  All legal process for criminal matters from non-U.S. law enforcement, prosecutors and courts must be directed to Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way ... and not to Microsoft's local subsidiary as all Microsoft Online Services customer data is stored in the U.S.

  
  
  In the past Microsoft has been happy to comply with the oppressive wishes of foreign governments, such as closing US based blogs about China. Because the information actually resides in the US, it is clear that it is actually under US control except for business interests. It is doubtful, for example, that China would exert force to retrieve data Microsoft refused to share. It's likely that Microsoft goes above and beyond what they advertise in this police sales material and that they do it for $50/hour - please hold while we take your call.
  
  Microsoft's ability and willingness to keep data to themselves is another matter. Microsoft's character will have them sell to the highest bidder, they were unable to keep their source code secrets to themselves and Sidekick Danger shows they can't keep things at all. No one should trust those greedy clowns.

• NotZed

  2010-02-28 11:59:41

  All online service providers do this ... google too, but i bet they try to keep that secret to try to white-wash their image.
  
  It's a particularly interesting prospect for those of us not based in the same country as the service. Local laws which may protect privacy further can be easily subverted, etc.

• Roy Schestowitz

  2010-02-28 14:38:42

  What I was trying to say though is that Microsoft will gather this data. Consider for example a Microsoft database of all IP addresses of GNU/Linux users and how the company can strategise advertisements. Don't underestimate Microsoft's BI.
  
  Remember that Microsoft also uses Windows Update to get a list of all applications a Windows user has installed (including competitors like Mozilla). It can track changes over time.

• your_friend

  2010-02-28 16:35:49

  Are you entirely sure that Google will have the actual name of a Yahoo contact when a contact is added to a Google contact list? We know that the Google user will be given some information but we don't know that Google is also given that information and if it is the actual contact name rather than some kind of user provided pen name. More importantly, the reverse may not true and Google probably gives a more limited subset of user information to other users, other ISPs and law enforcement. It is fair for us to look at this document and say what Microsoft does. It is not fair to look at this and say what Google does. Microsoft's continued efforts to smear a relatively innocent Google for all of Microsoft's sins are abundantly clear.

• your_friend

  2010-02-28 16:37:33

  The previous comment was made in reply to NotZed.