Former Microsoft Privacy Chief Says He No Longer Trusts The Company


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Microsoft's onetime Chief Privacy Advisor, Caspar Bowden, has come out with a vote of no-confidence in the company's long-term privacy measures and ability or interest to secure user data in the wake of the NSA's PRISM program. From 2002 - 2011, Bowden was in charge of privacy at Microsoft, and oversaw the company's efforts in that area in more than 40 countries, but claims to have been unaware of the PRISM program's existence while he worked at the company. In the two years since leaving Microsoft, Bowden has ceased carrying a cell phone and become a staunch open source user, claiming that he no longer trusts a program unless he can see the source.

"The public now has to think about the fact that anybody in public life, or person in a position of influence in government, business or bureaucracy, now is thinking about what the NSA knows about them. So how can we trust that the decisions that they make are objective and that they aren't changing the decisions that they make to protect their career? That strikes at any system of representative government."

As Bowden goes on to point out, if you aren't a US citizen, you have no protection whatsoever from PRISM.

http://hothardware.com/News/Former-Microsoft-Privacy-Chief-Says-He-No-Longer-Trusts-The-Company/

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 In the two years since leaving Microsoft, Bowden has ceased carrying a cell phone and become a staunch open source user, claiming that he no longer trusts a program unless he can see the source. 

 

Smart man.

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Its a pretty big middle finger to Microsoft's users to be allowing the NSA to spy on their PCs! What is the point of all of the security patches and software, if Microsoft makes it easy for the NSA to spy on Windows pcs? 

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Its a pretty big middle finger to Microsoft's users to be allowing the NSA to spy on their PCs! What is the point of all of the security patches and software, if Microsoft makes it easy for the NSA to spy on Windows pcs? 

One wonders why the reason for all of those patches, and why sometimes it takes ages for Microsoft do deploy a fix for an active exploit...

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Its a pretty big middle finger to Microsoft's users to be allowing the NSA to spy on their PCs! What is the point of all of the security patches and software, if Microsoft makes it easy for the NSA to spy on Windows pcs? 

 

And when did they do this...

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Sounds like a person that got fired, possibly because he started having mental issues and could no longer perform his job as he started to become clinically paranoid. 

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Sounds like a person that got fired, possibly because he started having mental issues and could no longer perform his job as he started to become clinically paranoid. 

 

It does sound that way from the tone of the article that was posted, so I went digging for another one. This one is a little less yellow journalism.

 

http://dottech.org/130094/microsofts-former-privacy-adviser-longer-trusts-microsoft-nsa-spying/

 

 

 

Bowden had worked for Microsoft?s privacy policy department in 40 countries, except US, and the NSA revelations were a shock for him.

 

That makes much more sense now. That would explain why he did not know about the program.

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Yeah, but the whole NSA thing was a shock to anyone working at MS since it's not really true, not the way journalists make it sound anyway. There was no back door giving the NSA full access to all of MS' data and certainly no backdoor into windows clients.

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Yeah, but the whole NSA thing was a shock to anyone working at MS since it's not really true, not the way journalists make it sound anyway. There was no back door giving the NSA full access to all of MS' data and certainly no backdoor into windows clients.

That's not accurate. Microsoft made numerous changes to its services, including Skype, to make it easier for the NSA to monitor communications. It also worked with the FBI to help they bypass BitLocker and was "very cooperative" with helping the NSA spy on Outlook.com and Hotmail users.

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 What is the point of all of the security patches and software, if Microsoft makes it easy for the NSA to spy on Windows pcs? 

 

So they don't go to prison.

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That's not accurate. Microsoft made numerous changes to its services, including Skype, to make it easier for the NSA to monitor communications. It also worked with the FBI to help they bypass BitLocker and was "very cooperative" with helping the NSA spy on Outlook.com and Hotmail users.

 

I'm not sure you read that article or other articles about the case. it specifically states there is no bitlocker backdoor...

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