Microsoft to toughen users' email reading policies post Hotmail controversy

Microsoft has reportedly announced that it was revising its policies regarding the company's potential reading of third-party users' emails, after it was revealed that the company searched a Hotmail user's account to uncover an internal leak.

Microsoft's deputy general counsel, John Frank, said that the company would meet a more rigorous standard before peeking into a non-employee's Hotmail account.

The revised policy states that the company would not conduct a search of customer email and other services unless the circumstances would justify a court order, Cnet reports.

The company has also decided to deploy a legal team separate from the internal investigating team to assess the evidence against any suspected user and submit it to an outside attorney who is a former federal judge.

Microsoft said that it would also publish transparency reports about the number of these searches that have been conducted and the number of customer accounts that have been affected.

According to the report, Frank defended Microsoft's use of the 'specific circumstances' to justify the 'extraordinary actions' of internally searching a Hotmail user account, who was found to be selling on eBay Microsoft property allegedly supplied by then-Microsoft employee Alex Kibkalo.