It's been a busy first half of the year for Microsoft.
CEO Steve Ballmer is leaving, the new Surface tablets are about to arrive, Bing got a new logo, and law enforcement agencies have come knocking. The company has gotten a total of 37,196 requests for user data from law enforcement agencies around the world in just the first six months of 2013, which affected about 66,539 accounts. The company revealed this information in their second Law Enforcements Requests Report for the first six months of the year. "As with the 2012 report this new data shows that across our services only a tiny fraction of accounts, less that 0.01 percent are ever affected by law enforcement requests for customer data," the company says.
Now, this is probably good news, relatively. But, like in 2012, most of those requests came from the United States. If the current rates hold up, Microsoft should end the year with about 75,000 requests—just about the number it hit last year. "It is clear," the company continues, "that the continued lack of transparency makes it very difficult for the community — including the global community — to have an informed debate about the balance between investigating crimes, keeping communities safe, and personal privacy."
