Microsoft updates privacy policy amid email spy admission

Vendor admits to snooping on a blogger's inbox after suspecting staff member leaked Windows 8 secrets to him

Microsoft has updated its privacy policy after admitting it snooped on the inbox of a blogger suspected of possessing confidential Windows 8 information secretly leaked to him by a former staff member.

Russian ex-Microsoft software architect Alex Kibkalo is accused of leaking top-secret Windows 8 information and screen shots to the French blogger and was arrested earlier this week, according to reports.

In a blog post released today, Microsoft admitted that it spied on the blogger's email account amid its investigation into the leak.

The vendor's general counsel John Frank said: "We undertook a limited review of this third party's Microsoft operated accounts. While Microsoft's terms of service make clear our permission for this type of review, this happens only in the most exceptional circumstances. We applied a rigorous process before reviewing such content."

Privacy is top of the agenda at tech firms in the wake of the NSA spying scandal, and Microsoft itself has made a big deal about its commitment to users' right to privacy, particularly around email.

It launched its "Scroogled" campaign, hitting out at rival Google's alleged practice of mining users' mail accounts for data to sell to advertisers.

Microsoft's Frank added that snooping on the blogger's email was completely within the rules and said that a court order ruling it could spy on the inbox could not be obtained as they are not issued to enable a company to search within itself.

But he did add that he understood the privacy concerns the case raised and moved to calm fears with the implementation of new security measures.

"We will not conduct a search of customer email and other services unless the circumstances would justify a court order, if one were available," he promised.

"To ensure we comply with the standards applicable to obtaining a court order, we will rely in the first instance on a legal team separate from the internal investigating team to assess the evidence. We will move forward only if that team concludes there is evidence of a crime that would be sufficient to justify a court order, if one were applicable.

"As a new and additional step, we will then submit this evidence to an outside attorney who is a former federal judge. We will conduct such a search only if this former judge similarly concludes that there is evidence sufficient for a court order."