Microsoft—Not Law Enforcement—Caught Looking At Emails of Hotmail User: Claims It Will Change Its Ways

Microsoft says it will not search a user's email or other Microsoft service "unless the circumstances would justify a court order, if one were available."

By Ian Paul
Outlook.com email should be private, Microsoft said in a recent blog post that then went on to explain why it violated that belief in privacy for at least one user.

Recently, a former Microsoft employee was arrested in Seattle, charged with theft of trade secrets. The ex-employee, Alex Kibkalo, is accused of leaking parts of Windows 8 to a French-language blogger.

The blogger in question, who remains unidentified, happened to use Hotmail—the investigation began in 2012 before Hotmail's Outlook.com transition—as his primary email account. So as part of its investigation, Microsoft peeked into the blogger's email account to read that person's correspondence with Kibkalo.

Say what?

Microsoft says it was justified in searching the blogger's email account, because it had probable cause to believe Kibkalo was funneling trade secrets to the blogger.The company also pointed out that even with its justification for searching the account, it would have been impossible to gain a court order.

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