Microsoft reveals furnishing data on 1462 users to Oz govt. in first half of 2013

Sydney – Microsoft has revealed that it gave out data on 1462 accounts to the Australian government in the first half of 2013.

The company’s second transparency report indicated that the government authorities made 1219 requests related to the accounts between January and June, and the company granted 86 percent of the total requests made.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Microsoft granted 1050 requests and gave related information such as email addresses, names, locations and internet protocol (IP) addresses.

However, the company did not disclose user-generated ‘content data’, which includes emails, documents and photographs.

Microsoft’s firs transparency report indicated that it received 2238 data requests from Australian authorities last year and abided 80 percent of the time but only one in 50 requests led the company to release ‘content data’.

Since the NSA leaks by Edward Snowden about the alleged US surveillance programmes, tech companies are struggling to win back the trust of their users and shareholders by publishing transparency reports.