Microsoft Give Encrypted User Data to NSA

Don't wait for your margin call.

Get It Try It

REDMOND (Radsoft) — If NASDAQ doesn't go berserk tomorrow with the revelations about Microsoft surfacing today, then it must be because they're closed for business. Of course what's been revealed about Microsoft may very well apply to the other eight companies known to collaborate with the NSA on their PRISM programme. But this news has to be extremely damaging to the Windows company.

Glenn Greenwald and his team - Ewen MacAskill, Laura Poitras, Spencer Ackerman, Dominic Rushe - today revealed the extent of collaboration between Microsoft and the NSA on the PRISM programme, and it's not a pretty sight. Frankly, anyone sticking with Redmond after these revelations is asking for trouble.

Privacy's been a forgotten topic for years, having been replaced by security. And the 'nine' working with the NSA have more and more promoted their 'cloud' solutions. And the public at large have struggled to trust the idea.

They never can. And now they know it. And so do the stockholders.

• Microsoft worked with the NSA to circumvent chat encryption at their new Outlook portal.
• The NSA already had pre-encryption access to email at Outlook and Hotmail.
• Microsoft worked with the FBI to make it easier for PRISM to get into Microsoft's cloud service SkyDrive. SkyDrive now has 250,000,000 users.
• Microsoft bought Skype in October 2011. Skype can now harvest both audio and video conversations.
• PRISM harvests are routinely shared with the CIA and the FBI.
• Barack Obama doesn't want the 'nine' to reveal more about their collaboration.

From Insecure to Sellout

Microsoft have never had secure platforms for their users. Microsoft became dominant in the years leading up to the 'web revolution' when their only competitors at Apple chose to keep their heads in the sand, this despite their owning a true 'Windows killer' in NeXTSTEP. Apple chose to waste five precious years making the stellar NeXT OS more 'Mac-like', and with this vacuum in the market, Microsoft were able to achieve total hegemony.

Despite DOJ trials, despite a disastrous security record unparalleled in any industry, Microsoft were able to hold on with billion dollar spin programmes.

But now those programmes, as egregious as they are, pale in comparison to this total sellout and to the deliberate lies perpetrated on the world.

Your privacy is their priority? Right. Don't wait for your margin call. Put in your sell order first thing.

See Also
Microsoft to 3rd Party: 'Fix Your Bugs!'