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Their argument that cloud can't survive invasion of privacy is probably right, but ignoring government, cloud operators threaten the privacy of their own users.

Their argument that cloud can't survive invasion of privacy is probably right, but ignoring government, cloud operators threaten the privacy of their own users. G and MSFT both have stories from the early days when their employees went into cloud email accounts to check up on users. In G's case it was a rogue sysadmin stalking some high school kids, for MSFT it was looking at a journalist's hotmail acct to prosecute a leak. The NSA has their own version of this, LOVEINT, where analysts stalk their significant others (or desireds or exes). I can't think of any guarantee a company can provide to say this isn't happening, esp on social platforms. Crypto-based platforms might do it (see the danish sugar beet auction, which uses a form of secure multiparty computation) but that's not MSFT's argument here. Also unclear how crypto platforms affect the ability to roll out new features and debug.

sergers 10y ago
Back in summer 2006 between semesters, I worked at a Microsoft call center for Hotmail plus/premium (people/companies who paid premium account, and some ISP rebranded Hotmail accounts). We had full access to billing, we also had full access to people's accounts. We could look at emails, look at deleted items weeks after del (restore in rare circumstances). The thing is we didnt mess around. The tools to do this are heavily logged and audited. There was an incident of guy looking into his gf account. Within a week the guy was repramanded and let go.
- awinter-py 10y ago
  what did he do with his girlfriend's information, and how was it discovered that he looked? Do you know if she was ever told? If yes, what was her reaction?
  - striking 10y ago
    > > The tools to do this are heavily logged and audited. > how was it discovered that he looked? That's how they figured it out. Because someone who wasn't fulfilling a support ticket accessed an email account.

sergers 10y ago

Back in summer 2006 between semesters, I worked at a Microsoft call center for Hotmail plus/premium (people/companies who paid premium account, and some ISP rebranded Hotmail accounts). We had full access to billing, we also had full access to people's accounts. We could look at emails, look at deleted items weeks after del (restore in rare circumstances). The thing is we didnt mess around. The tools to do this are heavily logged and audited. There was an incident of guy looking into his gf account. Within a week the guy was repramanded and let go.

awinter-py 10y ago
what did he do with his girlfriend's information, and how was it discovered that he looked? Do you know if she was ever told? If yes, what was her reaction?
- striking 10y ago
  > > The tools to do this are heavily logged and audited. > how was it discovered that he looked? That's how they figured it out. Because someone who wasn't fulfilling a support ticket accessed an email account.