What Microsoft knows about you – and is willing to hand over to Police…
March 1, 2010 Computer Safety Tip
Just when you thought it was safe to assume your privacy online and that information on your personal computer is 
yours alone to peruse, Microsoft has proven that this too is not so!
Ever heard of the “Global Criminal Compliance Handbook” – well no surprise if you have not – as this particular handbook’s presence was only just recently leaked – and would probably have remained under obscurity if the leak had not occurred. However, here it is – and we should all be made aware of what it entails, as it may affect each of us Microsoft users at one stage or another.
This particular handbook details just how Police and various Intelligence agencies may obtain information, also highlighted is the way I which to serve legal processes and processes with which to make requests for various information.
What we do know – thanks to this leaked handbook – is the fact that the following services are available for police and intelligence agencies to peruse:
- E-mail Services
- Authentication Service: Windows Live ID
- Instant Messaging: Windows Live Messenger
- Social Networking Services: Windows Live Spaces & MSN Groups
- Custom Domains: Windows Live Admin Center & Office Live Small Business
- Online File Storage: Office Live Workspace & Windows Live SkyDrive
- Gaming: Xbox Live
The rest of Microsoft’s services are pretty straightforward, how they can give information to other parties, as in how the information has been gathered. However, in the case of gamers information – there is quite a bit of information available to Microsoft, which they in turn may hand over to police authorities, upon request.
There is apparently quite a bit of info retained from Xbox live users, ranging and including the following:
- Credit card number
- First/last name with zip code
- Serial number but only if box has been registered online. “Console ID” is better
- Service request number from Xbox Hotline (e.g. SR 103xx-xx-xx)
- E-mail account (e.g. @msn.com, @hotmail.com or any other Windows Live ID account name)
- IP history for the lifetime of the gamertag (only one gamertag at a time).
Other information can only be given to authorities once a search warrant has been granted in respect to a particular customer’s profile.
The Global Criminal Compliance Handbook is not a phenomenon, as Microsoft is nto the only company which needs to comply with the laws of the land, as is shown in the statement released by Microsoft:
“Like all service providers, Microsoft must respond to lawful requests from law enforcement agencies to provide information related to criminal investigations. We take our responsibility to protect our customer’s privacy very seriously, so have specific guidelines that we use when responding to law enforcement requests. In this case, we did not ask that this site be taken down, only that Microsoft copyrighted content be removed. We are requesting to have the site restored and are no longer seeking the document’s removal.”
All in all – regardless of whether this sits well with you or not, it is best to know exactly what information remains sacred to us as users – and what information is readily available to whoever would want to take a squizz at it.
Comments (1)
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