Following similar disclosures from companies like Google and Twitter, Microsoft has disclosed for the first time last week the 2012 Law Enforcement Requests Report; including number of requests it had received from government law enforcement agencies for data on its hundreds of millions of customers around the world.
All of its major online services are covered in the report, including Hotmail, Outlook.com, SkyDrive, Xbox LIVE, Office 365, as well as Skype.
The report showed that law enforcement agencies in five countries — Britain, France, Germany, Turkey and the United States — accounted for 69 % of the 70,665 requests the company received last year. Only 11 requests came in from the police about Microsoft's enterprise customers, with the rest targeting private consumers.