As a single prosecution, Microsoft destroyed the trust of customers in the integrity of their data in the "cloud" services

Recently, news was published that a former Microsoft employee Alexei Kibkalo ( akibkalo ) was arrested for stealing and disclosing Microsoft's trade secrets. This event undoubtedly became the news of the day, and suddenly discovered that Microsoft was looking for “irrefutable” evidence against Alexey in other people's email accounts of Hotmail / Outlook.

On the one hand, nothing surprising, because the terms of service states:

“You agree that Microsoft may access, disclose or store information related to your use of the services, including (without limitation) your personal data and content or information that Microsoft receives about you through your use of the services (for example, IP address or other information from third parties) if Microsoft has reason to believe that such actions are necessary for
(a) compliance with the requirements of current legislation or appropriate response to requests from the judicial authorities;
(b) enforce this agreement or protect the rights or property of Microsoft or its users; or (c) to ensure personal safety or to prevent threats to the health of others. ”
windows.microsoft.com/ru-ru/windows-live/microsoft-services-agreement

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Based on this agreement, Microsoft can easily search for any necessary data from all mailboxes in its cloud, which has been amply demonstrated.

Under the pressure of an indignant public, Microsoft had to announce that the company would still revise its policy on private data stored in the cloud mail service Hotmail / Outlook. John Frank, deputy head of legal services and vice president of legal affairs, made an official statement in defense of the company's actions, and of course promised to "improve processes and increase transparency."

“The inviolability of our customers' data is incredibly important to us,” said John.

Of course, it's much easier to apologize than to ask permission.

Personally, I have no complaints about how Microsoft acted in this situation. Of course they have the right to fumble on their own servers. After all, the Terms of Service give them this permission.

HOWEVER

This story should be sufficient evidence for those companies that have decided to transfer their data to the cloud, in spite of all the tales of "cloud traders" about the inviolability of private data. Once you enter into a contract, all your data that resides on the servers of the cloud provider now belong to the cloud provider.

Cloud service providers say something like “this is your data, we just store it for you” to gain confidence and give a false sense of security. In fact, it's just nonsense.

The best thing to say on this topic in August 2012 was Steve Wozniak:

“In the cloud you no longer own anything. And you signed up for it. The more data we transfer to the web, to the clouds, the less control we have over them. ”

Also Steve said:

“I am seriously concerned about how everything moves into the clouds. It seems to me that soon it will turn into a nightmare. I fear the most horrific consequences in the next five years. ”

So in one, undoubtedly legal step, Microsoft itself proved the point of view that companies that store data in the clouds, unwittingly lose their property. The problem concerns not only the Hotmail / Outlook service. This applies to all Microsoft cloud services (Windows Azure, Xbox Live, OneDrive, etc.). And this is just terrible.

For example, for Facebook, this is not a problem. People themselves voluntarily part with their private life every day. But for a business that needs to maintain control over those who own their data, this is absolutely unacceptable.

In my opinion, there is nothing surprising in the way Microsoft behaved. After all, the company is guided by its legally impeccable right to "protect the safety of Microsoft employees, its customers and the public." So, once deciding to store data in the cloud, carefully read the “Terms of Service”, especially in terms of data integrity, the policy of their preservation and the possibility of legal prosecution. And do not expect that for all the services "Conditions" will be the same.

The credibility of Microsoft’s privacy policy in Hotmail / Outlook has come under serious blow, but it’s good to hear that the policy will be improved and will cause less questions if you have to resort to such actions in the future.