Microsoft Denies Participation In PRISM Data-Gathering Scheme

Yesterday was an unusually troubling day foronline privacy. Microsoft clarified the potentially problematic privacy settings for the Kinect video and audio sensor that must be plugged into the Xbox One for it to operate. And yet according to a stunning, unrelated report , Microsoft has also been offering up its users' data to the NSA and the FBI since 2007. Today, they've denied participation in just such a program. Their statement, sent to Kotaku by a Microsoft spokesperson:"We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don’t participate in it.Yesterday, both the Washington Post and The Guardian released documents indicating that since 2007 the National Security Agency and the FBI have been engaging in a massive, secret data-mining operation called PRISM. This morning, our sister site Gizmodo shared a good breakdown of how the program works. PRISM's goal has been to monitor for potentially dangerous activity, focusing on foreign communications, and to track individuals and connections to individuals through their online interactions. They've done so with the consent of a bunch of the biggest American Internet companies, though the program ostensibly tracked data only from non-Americans. According to both reports, Xbox One-maker Microsoft was first to agree to go along with the program. The other companies listed in the report, in order of their sign-on date, are Yahoo!, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, YouTube, Skype, AOL and Apple.