After the controversy, Microsoft ends snooping on Hotmail

Earlier we had a news stating that Microsoft had its man tracked down for stealing Windows source code and Microsoft Activation Server Software Development Kit for a blogger. In an effort to identify who the blogger was, Microsoft highlighted the evil side of itself by snooping on the Email service — Hotmail.

The search which was done without a warrant, Microsoft said it would not repeat it again without any prior warrants from the law and enforcement agencies. Microsoft made changes in its policies to reflect that the company would not raid private mails or instant messages in the absence of proofs.

A representative from the Redmond giant stated, “Effective immediately, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property from Microsoft, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves. Instead, we will refer the matter to law enforcement if further action is required.”

The representative, Brad Smith in the blog post also said, ” While our own search was clearly within our legal rights, it seems apparent that we should apply a similar principle and rely on formal legal processes for our own investigations involving people who we suspect are stealing from us. Therefore, rather than inspect the private content of customers ourselves in these instances, we should turn to law enforcement and their legal procedures.”

Microsoft has now made necessary changes in the policies to dig for the messages only under the effect of lawful actions, the ex-employee, who accepted stealing intellectual properties of the company, was leaking news to a French blogger. The employee, Alex Kibkalo, served Microsoft for about seven years and was positioned as senior architect at Microsoft.

The company followed the trail, when a programmer reached company’s officials about having source code for Windows received from a blogger in France. The employee, as reported, was not satisfied with perks and incentives he was getting for his work and decided to go this way.