What Microsoft will tell the cops about your online life if asked...

Computerworld blogger Preston Galla reports on Microsoft's (apparently) soon to be abandoned effort to prevent its 'Global Criminal Compliance Handbook' from landing in the public domain.  It gives the skinny on what data Microsoft is required to give to police about people using its online services -  Hotmail, search, IM, etc -  and the process required for them to get it.  Read his full post, with links to additional stories and a link where you can download the handbook here.

The net/net - they get access to just about everything - email, chat strings, logs of when people logged on, for how long, and more.  Basically, they get full access into the good, bad, ugly and boring. 

Talk about the power of an audit trail...

So...how many of us have used web mail to have conversations we don't want sitting on corporate servers?  Ever send an email that you would never want anyone outside the recipient to see?  One of the most powerful things about email is the level of abstraction it provides.  Who hasn't used email to say something to someone they couldn't or wouldn't say to them in person.... I know I have.

I am guessing that it is possible for a corporate mail server to log a users Gmail or Hotmail activity if enabled to do so (Yes?? No??  If someone knows can they please comment on it?) 

Even if that's not possible, those emails are still being stored on corporate servers - Microsoft's.  If they aren't being mined to figure out how to make you spend more time and money with Microsoft, we now know how cops - and fraudsters - can access your personal accounts and all the secrets that lie within them.  If there were a special heaven for voyeurs, this handbook would be in the reception area.

I don't know about you, but I’m permanently deleting everything in my webmail folders.  I am guessing if the need arose it could be restored, but I'm sure not going to make it easy for anyone to snoop through my (not so) personal communications.   Am I being smart?  Paranoid?  Both?