By Li Hongmei
Microsoft granted US secret services access to Outlook, and Skype, The Guardian reports on the 11th of July with reference to papers provided by CIA ex-agent Edward Snowden. These papers reveal the degree of the company's cooperation with US authorities within the PRISM program.
According to The Guardian, the materials confirm cooperation between Microsoft and the US National Security Agency (NSA) for the last three years.
In particular, according to the published documents, Microsoft helped the secret service to get round the coding system which it developed for the Outlook.com postal service.
The NSA also had access to the archives of SkyDrive which count over 250mln users all over the world.
In addition, after Skype went over to Misrosoft in October last year, US secret services could save the video and audio recordings of conversations.
Microsoft had previously said it did not provide the NSA direct access to users' information. On Thursday, it repeated that it provides customer data only in response to lawful government requests.
"To be clear, Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product," the company said in a statement on its website.
Facebook Inc, Google Inc and Microsoft had all publicly urged U.S. authorities to allow them to reveal the number and scope of the surveillance requests after documents leaked to the Washington Post and the Guardian suggested they had given the government "direct access" to their computers as part of the NSA's Prism program.
The disclosures have triggered widespread concern and congressional hearings about the scope and extent of the information-gathering.
A Microsoft representative has declared that his company does not grant the authorities overall access to the Outlook e-mail client, the popular Skype service and the SkyDrive file repository.
The Guardian reports with reference to papers submitted by Edward Snowden that Microsoft authorized the US National Security Agency (NSA) to circumvent its own cryptographic security and gain access to Outlook letters and chats.
Also, according to certain documents, NSA employees allegedly obtained direct access to SkyDrive and began to receive Skype metadata after the 6th of February 2011.
The Microsoft representative said that his company does not grant any government structures direct or comprehensive access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any other of its products.
