Microsoft Corp. announced its policies for accessing user information are to be changed as it faces scrutiny for looking into a private e-mail account when investigating a leak of company software.
According to federal court filings, one of the former employees of the company – Alex Kibkalo was accused of stealing the companys trade secrets, including a program code for future company products. When arrested on March 19th, he confessed of providing confidential information to a French blogger.
The case was said to be one of the most damaging privacy issues that influenced on a leading software and technology company in the U.S. after last year it became clear that the U.S. National Security Agency had been spying on citizens. According to court filings, the Hotmail e-mail account of the unnamed French blogger was accessed by private investigators of Microsoft in order to establish the source of the softwares code leak.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, according to the Web services Terms and Conditions of the company, Microsoft has the right to access its users private mails when it comes to police or law investigations or a case when the company needs to “protect the rights of property of Microsoft”. The company also posted a second statement, which pointed out some new steps in order to ensure its customers that Microsoft would not spy on their private communications. All similar cases would be referred to a former federal judge for an independent opinion.
John Frank, who is a deputy general counsel, commented the situation for the Financial Times: “The privacy of our customers is incredibly important to us, and while we believe our actions in this particular case were appropriate given the specific circumstances, we want to be clear about how we will handle similar situations going forward.”
Microsoft Corp. rose by 2.70% on Thursday to close the session at $40.33 per share, marking a one-year change of +43.47%. The tech giant is valued at $334.74 billion. According to CNN Money, the 28 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Microsoft Corp. have a median target of $39.40, with a high estimate of $47.00 and a low estimate of $29.00. The median estimate represents a -2.31% decrease from the last price of $40.33.
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