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(fèi)了數(shù)月來否認(rèn)，他們知悉政府暗中使用其互聯(lián)網(wǎng)服務(wù)進(jìn)行偵查活動(dòng)。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(yè)擁有在任何需要的時(shí)候窺探其客戶的能力。(紐約時(shí)報(bào))
電子郵件原先被認(rèn)為是一種相對(duì)能保護(hù)客戶隱私的通訊渠道，但是現(xiàn)在這種觀點(diǎn)受到了挑戰(zhàn)。
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(lián)邦法庭文件中承認(rèn)，該公司強(qiáng)行進(jìn)入一個(gè)博客用戶的電郵賬號(hào)，以追查并阻止一種敏感軟件上可能具有的災(zāi)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(diào)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(jí)軟件架構(gòu)師涉嫌盜竊微軟Windows8相關(guān)商業(yè)機(jī)密，微軟在要求執(zhí)法部門介入前，就已經(jīng)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(jī)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(duì)此事的承認(rèn)，是繼2013年美國披露國家安全局偷窺用戶之后，又一個(gè)對(duì)這家美國領(lǐng)先科技公司造成打擊的隱私方面的嚴(yán)重過失。(金融時(shí)報(bào))
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(jù)《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》報(bào)道，這家軟件公司進(jìn)入了由微軟運(yùn)營的博客用戶的hotmail郵箱和信息賬戶。報(bào)道還說，這種沒有法庭許可的行動(dòng)十分不尋常，并引發(fā)了保護(hù)用戶數(shù)據(jù)的疑問。(The Oregonian網(wǎng)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(diào)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(bǔ)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(fā)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(shí)報(bào))
微軟原先的網(wǎng)絡(luò)服務(wù)條款允許公司在警方或執(zhí)法部門的要求下以及出于“保護(hù)微軟權(quán)利或財(cái)產(chǎn)”的目的訪問用戶的通訊內(nèi)容。公司的觀點(diǎn)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(rèn)為用戶的個(gè)人數(shù)據(jù)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(dú)的團(tuán)隊(duì)進(jìn)行法律審查以及內(nèi)部調(diào)查外，微軟還計(jì)劃向一名曾擔(dān)任前聯(lián)邦法官的外部律師提交能向法庭證明的有力證據(jù)。(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(rèn)為公司將有理由獲得訪問數(shù)字信息的法院命令時(shí)，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(jì)劃在一年兩次的透明度報(bào)告中，披露內(nèi)部調(diào)查的次數(shù)和所影響到的賬戶數(shù)目數(shù)據(jù)，這份透明度報(bào)告現(xiàn)在包括政府和警方所要求進(jìn)行的調(diào)查數(shù)據(jù)。(CSO雜志)