Technology companies have spent months denying they know anything about broad government spying on people who use their Internet services. But a legal case filed this week against a former Microsoft employee shows the power these companies themselves have to snoop on their customers whenever they want to.
科技公司花費了數月來否認，他們知悉政府暗中使用其互聯網服務進行偵查活動。不過上周涉及前微軟雇員的一宗法律官司卻顯示，這些企業擁有在任何需要的時候窺探其客戶的能力。(紐約時報)
電子郵件原先被認為是一種相對能保護客戶隱私的通訊渠道，但是現在這種觀點受到了挑戰。
Microsoft admitted in federal court documents that it forced its way into a blogger’s Hotmail account to track down and stop a potentially catastrophic leak of sensitive software. The company says its decision is justified.
微軟公司在聯邦法庭文件中承認，該公司強行進入一個博客用戶的電郵賬號，以追查并阻止一種敏感軟件上可能具有的災難性漏洞。微軟表示這一決定事出有因。(CNN)
法庭文件顯示，微軟的調查以此為工具希望找到被控泄露信息的人。在2012年微軟前高級軟件架構師涉嫌盜竊微軟Windows8相關商業機密，微軟在要求執法部門介入前，就已經自行搜索了該匿名法國科技博客用戶的Hotmail郵箱，從而很快找到了機密泄漏者。
The concession marked one of the most damaging privacy gaffes to hit a leading US technology company since revelations in 2013 that the country’s National Security Agency had been spying on their users.
微軟對此事的承認，是繼2013年美國披露國家安全局偷窺用戶之后，又一個對這家美國領先科技公司造成打擊的隱私方面的嚴重過失。(金融時報)
The software giant accessed the blogger’s Microsoft-operated Hotmail and message accounts， according to a story by The New York Times， which also said such a move “without a court order was highly unusual and raises questions about its protections for customer data.
據《紐約時報》報道，這家軟件公司進入了由微軟運營的博客用戶的hotmail郵箱和信息賬戶。報道還說，這種沒有法庭許可的行動十分不尋常，并引發了保護用戶數據的疑問。(The Oregonian網站)
Microsoft initially released a statement claiming that， although it did not have a court order to conduct the search， it had good reason to believe the blogger had received the code. It added that it searched users’ email accounts “only in the most exceptional circumstances”. Soon after， however， it released a second statement outlining new steps to reassure users it would not spy on their private communications.
微軟最初的聲明稱，盡管沒有法庭調查的命令，它有充分的理由相信博客用戶獲取了代碼。該公司補充說，它只在最特別的情況下才搜查用戶的電子郵件賬戶。然而隨后不久，該公司發布第二份聲明，提出新措施保證不再窺查用戶私人通信。(金融時報)
微軟原先的網絡服務條款允許公司在警方或執法部門的要求下以及出于“保護微軟權利或財產”的目的訪問用戶的通訊內容。公司的觀點是特殊情況下有特殊的政策。電子隱私信息中心的麥考爾表示，這些行為似乎在表示微軟認為用戶的個人數據屬于微軟而不是使用者本人。顯然，微軟的第二份聲明正試圖在一定程度上挽回用戶的信任。
In addition to using separate teams for legal review and internal investigations， the company plans to send the evidence that it believes would otherwise justify a court order to an outside attorney who used to be a judge.
除了有單獨的團隊進行法律審查以及內部調查外，微軟還計劃向一名曾擔任前聯邦法官的外部律師提交能向法庭證明的有力證據。(CSO雜志)
微軟副法律總顧問弗蘭克說，只有在上述外部律師認為公司將有理由獲得訪問數字信息的法院命令時，微軟才可以訪問用戶信息。
The company also plans to start including data about the number of internal searches and the number of accounts they affected in its bi-annual transparency reports that currently include data on searches conducted in response to government and court orders.
微軟還計劃在一年兩次的透明度報告中，披露內部調查的次數和所影響到的賬戶數目數據，這份透明度報告現在包括政府和警方所要求進行的調查數據。(CSO雜志)