Microsoft has issued a statement regarding its privacy practices and collaboration with intelligence agencies. Read it in its entirety below.

We have clear principles which guide the response across our entire company to government demands for customer information for both law enforcement and national security issues.



First, we take our commitments to our customers and to compliance with applicable law very seriously, so we provide customer data only in response to legal processes. Second, our compliance team examines all demands very closely, and we reject them if we believe they aren’t valid. Third, we only ever comply with orders about specific accounts or identifiers, and we would not respond to the kind of blanket orders discussed in the press over the past few weeks, as the volumes documented in our most recent disclosure clearly illustrate. To be clear, Microsoft does not provide any government with blanket or direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype or any Microsoft product.



Finally when we upgrade or update products legal obligations may in some circumstances require that we maintain the ability to provide information in response to a law enforcement or national security request. There are aspects of this debate that we wish we were able to discuss more freely. That’s why we’ve argued for additional transparency that would help everyone understand and debate these important issues.

Microsoft's participation in the NSA's surveillance programs may be more extensive than previously thought. New documents from whistleblower Edward Snowden obtained by The Guardian claim that Microsoft has worked with US intelligence agencies to provide streamlined access to its services, including Outlook.com, Hotmail, Skype, SkyDrive, and more. Over the last three years, Microsoft has reportedly assisted the FBI and NSA in encryption bypassing its products' encryption that would otherwise prevent the interception of web chats, emails, and user data. Most notably, the company allowed the agencies to collect video and audio from conversations made through Skype, which it acquired in 2011.Although Xbox products and services were not mentioned, it stands to reason that Microsoft's gaming business would not be immune to government intelligence requests.Microsoft, along with other tech giants like Google and Apple, were implicated last month when the NSA's PRISM surveillance and data collection program was first revealed. Microsoft denied having any prior knowledge of the program. The company has, however, acknowledged that it provides user data on per-request basis, as required by law. It refutes providing any open-ended access to its servers or user data.While the report doesn't completely disprove Microsoft's previous public statements, it does reveal the lengths it has gone to to adhere to the government's domestic and international surveillance efforts. For a more detailed account of Microsoft's alleged intelligence collaboration, check out The Guardian Microsoft has issued a statement regarding today's report from The Guardian:

Scott Lowe is IGN's resident tech expert and Executive Editor of IGN Tech. You can follow him on Twitter at @ScottLowe and on MyIGN at Scott-IGN