Microsoft is defending its right to break into customers' accounts and read their emails.

Microsoft is defending its right to break intocustomers' accounts and read their emails.The company's ability -- and willingness -- to take such an
approach became apparent this week. Microsoft ( ,Fortune 500) admitted in federal court documents that it
forced its way into a blogger's Hotmail account to track down and stop a potentially catastrophic leak of sensitive
software. The company says its decision is justified.From the company's point of view, desperate times call for
desperate measures.
"In this case, we took extraordinary actions based on the
specific circumstances," said John Frank, one of the company's top lawyers, in a blog post Thursday night.
According to an FBI complaint , Microsoft in 2012 discovered that an ex-employee had leaked proprietary
software to an anonymous blogger. Fearing that could empower hackers, Microsoft's lawyers approved emergency
"content pulls" of the blogger's accounts to track it down.Company investigators entered the blogger's Hotmail
account, then pored over emails and instant messages on Windows Live. The internal investigation led to the arrest on
Wednesday of Alex Kibkalo, a former Microsoft employee based in Lebanon.
Related story: Google tries to NSA-proof Gmail Although the move could be perceived as a breach of trust,
Microsoft says it's allowed to make such unilateral decisions. It pointed to its terms of service: When you use
Microsoft communication products -- Outlook, Hotmail,Windows Live -- you agree to "this type of review ... in the
most exceptional circumstances," Frank wrote.Microsoft's legal team thought there was enough evidence
suggesting the blogger would try selling the illegally obtained intellectual property. In such instances, law enforcement agents would typically seek a warrant, but
Microsoft said it didn't need one. The servers storing the information are on its own property.Ginger McCall, a director at the Electronic Privacy
Information Center , said those actions are deeply troubling,because they show "Microsoft clearly believes that the
users' personal data belongs to Microsoft, not the usersthemselves."
"This is part of the broader problem with privacy policies,"
she said. "There are hidden terms that the users don't actually know are there. If the terms were out in the open,
people would be horrified by them."
Microsoft recognizes that it's a sensitive topic, especially as the nation grapples with revelations about the extent of
warrantless surveillance on Americans by their own government -- spying that Microsoft and other major tech
companies have loudly criticized.
That's why Microsoft is instituting a new policy: In the future, it'll loop in an outside lawyer who's a former federal
judge and seek his or her approval.
In a move that might be deemed ironic, Microsoft will now add its own internal searches to its biannual transparency
reports on government surveillance.