Microsoft secretly gave the NSA, CIA, FBI access to Skype, Outlook, Skydrive

They say they were legally obligated to do so, but it seems they went above and beyond the call of duty and enabled VIDEO recording of Skype calls, decrypted encrypted Outlook chat logs and gave easier access to Skydrive. I suppose Obama and the government is to be blamed for this 1984 styIe government spying, but it's sickening to see Microsoft tout 'Your Privacy is our Priority' and then feed all our private calls to the government. I knew someone was watching my skype calls, after all these are the same f*ckers who spied on Military couples having Cyber and passed those videos around in the office. What a bunch of dicks we have put in power.

Microsoft is now going to put a camera in every living room. 1984 is here and MS is the piece of shit company enabling it. It's f*cking sickening.

The documents show that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;
• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;
• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;
• Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to "understand" potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;
• Skype, which was bought by Microsoft in October 2011, worked with intelligence agencies last year to allow Prism to collect video of conversations as well as audio;
• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".

Full article here:
http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data

So do we have any other more reliable sources to go with this rumor?Jakandsigz

This is not a rumor. Guardian is as reliable as you can get.

[QUOTE="Jakandsigz"]So do we have any other more reliable sources to go with this rumor?S0lidSnake

This is not a rumor. Guardian is as reliable as you can get.

So don't use skype or outlook (who the f*ck uses outlook anyway) and there is no problem? Is that the only issue here? There are lots of alternatives to both products, which are optional things you use....1984 lol jesus.GodModeEnabled

ummm... Their privacy policy explicitly stated they do not share our info with anyone, let alone their video recording of the call. Had I known that I wouldn't have used it, but the fact of the matter is I did. So did hundreds of millions of people. Which part of 'secretly gave access' did you not understand?

Any other agency and this would be grounds for a cIass action lawsuit.

[QUOTE="S0lidSnake"]

[QUOTE="Jakandsigz"]So do we have any other more reliable sources to go with this rumor?Jakandsigz

This is not a rumor. Guardian is as reliable as you can get.

I dont know. Maybe this is a breaking news. Maybe they have the first scoop. maybe there are a million other stories out there. If you arent satisfied then do your own research and then come back with a source that denies this. BOTH MICROSOFT AND NSA released a press statement in regards to these accusations which is included at the end of the article. Perhaps you should read the article before questioning its merits?

[QUOTE="Jakandsigz"][QUOTE="S0lidSnake"]

This is not a rumor. Guardian is as reliable as you can get.

S0lidSnake

I dont know. Maybe this is a breaking news. Maybe they have the first scoop. maybe there are a million other stories out there. If you arent satisfied then do your own research and then come back with a source that denies this. BOTH MICROSOFT AND NSA released a press statement in regards to these accusations which is included at the end of the article. Perhaps you should read the article before questioning its merits?

[QUOTE="S0lidSnake"]

[QUOTE="Jakandsigz"] And not one other place has this at all?Jakandsigz

I dont know. Maybe this is a breaking news. Maybe they have the first scoop. maybe there are a million other stories out there. If you arent satisfied then do your own research and then come back with a source that denies this. BOTH MICROSOFT AND NSA released a press statement in regards to these accusations which is included at the end of the article. Perhaps you should read the article before questioning its merits?

No you started off the thread by questioning the source of this article by calling it a rumor. You then asked for another source. How else is one supposed to take this? Do you go around forums asking stupid benign questions like these? Stuff you can google yourself?

I've never seem the Guardians US site only it's UK site before.

Why is the text so large on the American site?

[QUOTE="Jakandsigz"][QUOTE="S0lidSnake"]

I dont know. Maybe this is a breaking news. Maybe they have the first scoop. maybe there are a million other stories out there. If you arent satisfied then do your own research and then come back with a source that denies this. BOTH MICROSOFT AND NSA released a press statement in regards to these accusations which is included at the end of the article. Perhaps you should read the article before questioning its merits?

S0lidSnake

No you started off the thread by questioning the source of this article by calling it a rumor. You then asked for another source. How else is one supposed to take this? Do you go around forums asking stupid benign questions like these? Stuff you can google yourself?

I think this and other recent new reports revealing Microsoft giving user information to the United States government is the metaphorical tip of the iceberg of what is a grand surveillance program.

I would be deeply surprised if most of the industry hadn't collaborated with the government post 9/11.

The internet is a public space and there are records somewhere of everything you say and do. Our only real protection from the long noses of government and the big corporations that run the internet is the fact that so many people are doing so much stuff all of the time :|. Yes, its flimsy protection, but its all we've got and no matter what noises Congress or the current or future presidents make, all we're ever going to have.

I would be deeply surprised if most of the industry hadn't collaborated with the government post 9/11.

The internet is a public space and there are records somewhere of everything you say and do. Our only real protection from the long noses of government and the big corporations that run the internet is the fact that so many people are doing so much stuff all of the time :|. Yes, its flimsy protection, but its all we've got and no matter what noises Congress or the current or future presidents make, all we're ever going to have.

CarnageHeart

Sums up my thoughts. Consiodering how the government has handled "security" in modern times, this news is hardly surprising.

[QUOTE="S0lidSnake"]

[QUOTE="Jakandsigz"]So do we have any other more reliable sources to go with this rumor?Jakandsigz

This is not a rumor. Guardian is as reliable as you can get.

They say they were legally obligated to do so, but it seems they went above and beyond the call of duty and enabled VIDEO recording of Skype calls, decrypted encrypted Outlook chat logs and gave easier access to Skydrive. I suppose Obama and the government is to be blamed for this 1984 styIe government spying, but it's sickening to see Microsoft tout 'Your Privacy is our Priority' and then feed all our private calls to the government. I knew someone was watching my skype calls, after all these are the same f*ckers who spied on Military couples having Cyber and passed those videos around in the office. What a bunch of dicks we have put in power.

S0lidSnake

It's been going on since after 9/11. It's basically Stellar Wind 2.0, the original having been started by the Bush administration - specifically Cheney's design. It's not really surprising when you consider the politicians we elect are so technologically ignorant, they brag about not knowing how to use an i-pod. The result is technology's ability to connect us outpacing government's ability to extend constitutional protections to those transactions....and then government taking advantage of the constitutional loopholes their inaction creates. The common public is also fairly ignorant, not even knowing to press the issue with their congressmen.

I doubt anything MS did here was exceptional (probably one of many companies forced to comply). And I doubt anything the government did was illegal. I would even guess the justice department signed off on this.

Here's an article on the subject. Stellar Wind, Prism, etc:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/us-surveillance-architecture-includes-collection-of-revealing-internet-phone-metadata/2013/06/15/e9bf004a-d511-11e2-b05f-3ea3f0e7bb5a_story.html

Wasn't this what PRISM was all about anyway? As someone who follows these issues quite closely, none of this comes as a surprise. In fact the only thing that is surprising is that people are acting like they didn't know about this until now.