Microsoft hands over Aussie data

Microsoft received requests for subscriber information for at least 1899 Australians from law enforcement agencies. Source: The Courier-Mail

MICROSOFT last year released the identification details of at least 1900 Australians to law enforcement officials.

The revelation is contained in the software company’s first Law Enforcement Requests report which shows that Australian authorities were the seventh most frequent requester of Microsoft user information.

The Microsoft report said 2238 requests were made by Australian authorities involving 3081 accounts.

In response to those demands, the software company said it did not disclose any Australian user’s content (such as photographs or emails, for example).

But it did disclose “subscriber data” for 1899 requests, which involved at least that many people and potentially many more.

The report said subscriber data typically included name, e-mail address, credit card details, date of birth and IP address.

Microsoft General Counsel and Executive Legal & Corporate Affairs Vice President Brad Smith said internationally Microsoft received 75,378 law enforcement requests for customer information and those requests involved 137,424 accounts.

Only 2.1 percent, or 1558 requests, resulted in the disclosure of customer content.

More than 99 percent of requests were made by US authorities but there was also 14 disclosures of customer content to authorities in Brazil, Ireland, Canada and New Zealand.

Microsoft plans to release a Law Enforcement Requests Report every six months. Google has been publishing similar reports for three years.
 

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