Microsoft backs down on leaked compliance handbook

Sam Varghese
Friday, 26 February 2010 08:07

IT Policy - Regulation

Microsoft has backed down on its demand that the whistleblower website Cryptome remove  the company's Global Criminal Compliance Handbook which the site had placed online on Wednesday.

The document details the type of snooping that Microsoft will do for law enforcement bodies on its online platforms.

The Redmond-based software giant had initially sent Cryptome a notice demanding that the document be removed on the grounds that it was a copyrighted piece of work. Later, Cryptome editor John Young received a notice from his hosting provider, Network Solutions, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and informing him that his site would be taken off the air unless he withdrew the document.

Young did not buckle and his site was duly taken off the net yesterday. He was prepared for this eventuality and his site promptly came up again at a temporary site.

But the document was put online by BusinessInsider and later by Wikileaks. The website Computerworld reported the backdown this morning Australian time and has now revealed details from the booklet.

The 22-page guide says that the online services covered are email, Windows Live ID, Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Spaces and MSN Groups, Windows Live Admin Center and Office Live Small Business, Office Live Workspace, Windows Live SkyDrive and Xbox Live.

CONTINUED