4 ms·
To the best of my knowledge, no one has alleged that the NSA had Microsoft's help in intercepting Petrobras-related email. This is more about the possibility of
by CurtHagenlocher 13y ago
To the best of my knowledge, no one has alleged that the NSA had Microsoft's help in intercepting Petrobras-related email. This is more about the possibility of such a threat than anything else.
Disclaimer: I work at Microsoft, so eh.
- devx 13y agoWhy take the chance? From the leaks, the companies have "cooperated enough", especially when we're talking about "foreigners". We don't need proof for absolutely everything and for every single case, to stop trusting American companies, until there's a dramatic change in laws, and surveillance policy in US.
- stfu 13y agoThis is going to be the main issue behind that argument. The burden of proof has shifted. The tech industries reaction to the Snowden seems to the outside very lukewarm. Sure, they are giving all sorts of "trust us" statements, but truth is we don't have the slightest clue if this is their honest opinion or just an opinion that a secret court forces them to uphold. Reality might be much more nuanced, but to the outside there is very little reason to give anyone any longer the benefit of the doubt.
- barista 13y agoThere is nothing that singles Microsoft out here as every other operator of email and other software complied as well. This is something the US government should come clean on and something that the tech companies should push the government to do.
- stfu 13y agoAbsolutely. There is nothing that singles out Microsoft as better or worse, but it is a looming issue for the whole US tech industry.
- neves 13y agoBTW: Petrobras uses, argh!, Lotus Notes. There were a lot allegations that Microsoft and IBM cooperated with the NSA and inserted backdoors in their products.
- CurtHagenlocher 13y agoSure; I guess I should have said "credible allegations" meaning that a former NSA employee with specific claims is very credible, speculation based on a single exported symbol name in an older version of Windows is quite a bit less so. I was a bit amused to read that "The Expresso platform will also be used as the base of the Hotmail-like system that the government is also planning to offer to citizens." Are Brazil's citizens that trusting of its government? I certainly can't imagine Americans trusting their email to the government even before Snowden-gate.
- mc32 13y agoWell, what better excuse to push a product ready for local government control but to sell it as the antidote to the specter of American/foreign spying. Brazil, as some other LAm countries, love using the American scapegoat to distract from many local issues (the economy is bad, it's the IMF and the Americans' faults, etc.) I mean to say this appears to be primarily a political reaction with nice governmental side-benefits.