Microsoft - now proudly brought to you by the NSA

Twenty-five years ago today, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez slammed into Bligh Reef and spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil into the cold, clear waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound - one of the "last best places" on Earth. The oil charged through the sound and out into the Gulf of Alaska, damaging more than 2100 km of some of the most remote, wild shoreline in America. This happened 25 years ago, so we might note the anniversary as we do any other historical event. That, however, would imply that the oil spill is over. It's not, and likely never will be. The sound's coastal ecosystem is still permanently damaged. Thousands of gallons of Exxon Valdez oil still pollute the beaches; this oil is still toxic and still hurting the ecosystem near the shore. But now onto a more current issue - Microsoft is defending its right to break into customers' accounts and read their emails. The company's ability - and willingness - to take such an approach became apparent this week. Microsoft admitted in federal court documents that it forced its way into a blogger's Hotmail account to track down and stop a potentially catastrophic leak of sensitive software. The company says its decision is justified. That's bollocks. They should be acting more like Google, who just beefed up the security of Gmail to make mass surveillance of its customers' email nearly impossible. It's not quite NSA-proof, but it's close. To accomplish the feat, Google secured how you connect to its servers. Gmail is now strictly using a secure communications protocol called HTTPS, which encrypts your email on its entire journey: from your computer to Google, between Google's servers, and from Google to the person receiving your email.