Microsoft at the center of the PRISM scandal

The PRISM case and the Edward Snowden revelations are on their way to becoming a headache for major technology companies and are already a reason for justified concern for users of many of their services. Almost none of the internet giants has escaped being splashed, but the latest revelations point directly to Microsoft They explain how the Redmonds allowed direct access from US security agencies to the communications and files of its users.

According to documents provided by Snowden to The Guardian, Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services over the past three years That collaboration included helping the National Security Agency (NSA) circumvent the company's own encryption measures, making it possible to intercept all communications from users of some of its core services.

Outlook, SkyDrive and Skype compromised

In the information published by the English newspaper, it is ensured that the documents show how Microsoft allowed and facilitated access to both the NSA, the FBI and the CIA to the communications and files stored on its servers. Among the list of most important accusations, which affecting products such as Outlook.com, SkyDrive or Skype, The Guardian compiles the following:

• Microsoft helped the NSA bypass its encryption system in response to the agency's concerns about not being able to intercept chat conversations on the new Outlook.com.
• The agency already had access to pre-encrypted email phases in Outlook.com, and also in Hotmail.
• The company worked with the FBI earlier this year to allow the NSA easier access via PRISM to SkyDrive, its cloud storage service.
• Microsoft also worked with the FBI's data interception unit to try to understand the possible effects of the Outlook.com feature that allows users to create aliases in their emails.
• In July of last year, nine months after Microsoft bought Skype, the NSA claimed to have tripled the number of video calls from the service captured through PRISM.
• "The material collected through PRISM is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, in what they call a team effort."

The documents would contain all that information, also indicating specific dates and some of the methods used by the US agencies.In them Microsoft is bluntly accused of working directly and knowingly with said agencies to help them in their task of gathering as much information as they deem necessary.

Microsoft continues to deny the allegations

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From Redmond they have not been slow to respond by reiterating the well-known arguments that they only provide data on their users in response to legal processes and, after properly reviewing them, only comply with orders requested on specific accounts or identifiers. According to the company, in no case is there such direct and indiscriminate access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype, or any other Microsoft product "

In their statement they also explain that when they improve or update their products they are not absolved from complying with existing or future legal demands, but they are willing to discuss the issue more openly. Hence his recent request, along with other technology giants, to be able to reveal more data and add more transparency to the debate.

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The blow is hard and, on this occasion, directly against Microsoft. Without going any further, the company has been advertising for months under the motto your privacy is our priority The fact is that the documents revealed by Snowden suggest the opposite and continue to confuse the necessary relationship of trust between Internet users and the companies that provide the most used services on the network. And it would not surprise me if similar information appeared in the next few days from each of the companies involved."

Via | Genbeta