Every six months, we publish information about the emergency requests we receive in this Law Enforcement Requests Report. Some of the most common emergency requests involve suicide threats and kidnappings. Each request is carefully evaluated by Microsoft’s compliance team before any data is disclosed, and the disclosure is limited to the data that we believe would enable law enforcement to address the emergency. The request must contain a summary of the emergency, along with an explanation of how the information sought will assist law enforcement in addressing the emergency.
Microsoft considers emergency requests from law enforcement agencies around the world, and requires these requests be in writing on official letterhead, signed by a law enforcement authority. Additionally, consistent with applicable law and industry practice, Microsoft sometimes discloses limited information to law enforcement where we believe the disclosure is necessary to prevent an emergency involving danger of death or serious physical injury to a person. If one of our customers or employees, or Microsoft itself, is the victim of a crime, we may report some limited information to law enforcement. On occasion, we also report some limited information about a user when we have reason to believe the individual is about to harm themselves or someone else due to a public posting on one of our forums, on Xbox LIVE, or through referrals from other customers. Pursuant to US law, we are required to report identified or suspected images exploiting children to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). We do this only in limited, defined circumstances. We may also reject requests when no legal reason exists why the government cannot seek the data from enterprise customers themselves, rather than from Microsoft. We may reject a request if it is not signed or not appropriately authorized, contains the wrong dates, is not properly addressed, contains material mistakes, or is overly broad. We may reject requests when they exceed the authority or jurisdiction of the requesting agency. For example, we might reject a request if it is facially invalid, improperly served on us, or requests data of a type not supported by the order or of the incorrect technology company. There are many reasons why Microsoft may reject or challenge a request.
We also, where it is appropriate, challenge requests in court. In many of these cases, we simply inform the requesting government that we are unable to disclose the requested information and explain our reason for rejecting the request. Challenges to government requests can take many forms. As our report shows, every year we reject a number of law enforcement requests.
0 kommentar(er)
