Microsoft takes down Cryptome site over ‘Spy Guide’ before withdrawing complaint
Unhappy with the publishing of a so-called ‘spy guide’ concerning how the company works with law enforcement agencies, Microsoft managed to get the Cryptome Web site taken down. But order has now been restored, with the site back up and the document in question having been passed around across the Web.
Microsoft has backed down in its fight against the long-running Cryptome Web site, which exists to keep tabs on how companies, governments, and organizations use surveillance against the general public. But not before the site was taken offline as a result of the DMCA complaint Microsoft issued over the publishing of the Microsoft Global Criminal Compliance Handbook.
The Cryptome Web site has been running since 1996 under the guidance of proprietor John Young. The site is essentially a whistle-blower keeping tabs on how the public’s data is being used and abused. Its nearest compatriot is Wikileaks.
Cryptome recently published a copy of the Microsoft Global Criminal Compliance Handbook, which details what data Microsoft collects and stores about everyone which uses its services and, more conspiratorially, how law enforcement officials should set about gaining access to that data.
PC World has an in-depth guide to the 22-page document and what information is collected on Microsoft services. In a nutshell, if you use Hotmail, Windows Live, Microsoft Office Live, Xbox Live, MSN, MSN Groups, Windows Live Spaces, or Windows Live Messenger, then you should take a look to see how Microsoft will, or more likely will not, protect your data from prying eyes.
Microsoft issued a DMCA takedown request to Cryptome’s host Network Solutions on Wednesday. After contacting John Young asking him to remove the offending document and getting no joy, Network Solutions took the whole site offline. Young still refused to comply, instead setting up a new site with mirrors of most of the documents published on the site in the last 14 years.
This morning came news that Microsoft was backing down, with a statement issued saying:
Like all service providers, Microsoft must respond to lawful requests from law enforcement agencies to provide information related to criminal investigations. We take our responsibility to protect our customers privacy very seriously, so have specific guidelines that we use when responding to law enforcement requests. In this case, we did not ask that this site be taken down, only that Microsoft copyrighted content be removed. We are requesting to have the site restored and are no longer seeking the document’s removal.
Which is a wholesale victory for Cryptome, John Young, the free speech activists who spread the story around the Web, and everyone who believes documents of this kind should be in the public domain.
As for Microsoft this represents a colossal screw-up. Had the company let the document leak into the public domain in this way then few people would ever have become aware of it. As it is, purely because of an overzealous use of the DMCA the document has been spread far and wide, with mainstream blog and news sites even reporting on its contents. That’s surely the very definition of an own goal.
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