Microsoft finally joined the ranks of tech companies that publish data on government and police requests, often referred to as transparency reports. On Thursday, the tech giant announced it was releasing its own 2012 Law Enforcement Requests Report.

Microsoft's executive vice president and the company’s general counsel Brad Smith wrote in in a blog post announcing the report that at Redmond "we seek to build further on the industry’s commitment to transparency by releasing our own data today."

Google was the transparency report pioneer when it started releasing this kind of data in 2010, and the company keeps setting the bar higher after becoming the first one to release data relating to the secretive requests known as National Security Letters. Big companies like Apple and Yahoo still don't publish any kind of data related to law-enforcement requests.

The report covers Microsoft's wide array of products, including SkyDrive, Hotmail, Outlook.com, Xbox Live and Skype (the data regarding the VoIP software is released in a separate report).

Internet freedom activists had long been calling for Microsoft to release this kind of information. Particularly, in the case of Skype, an open letter in January urged the Redmond company to be more transparent regarding its capabilities to snoop on Skype conversation. The report doesn't address whether that's possible, but does reveal who requested information on Skype users, and how many times Microsoft complied with those requests.

SEE ALSO: Senators Want Police to Get Warrant Before Reading Your Emails

The data (PDF) reveals that Microsoft complied with non-content requests (exluding Skype) 80% of the times it was requested to do so. Non-content data refers to metadata like names of senders and recipients of emails, the dates in which messages are sent, or IP addresses used. In total, Microsoft received 70,665 requests during 2012.

Overall, across all Microsoft services, only 2.2% of requests — which amounted to a total of 1,558 — resulted in content being shared with the government or police that requested it. Almost every one of those requests (more than 99%) for content came from the United States — in fact, only in 14 cases did Microsoft release content to other countries. In the case of Skype, law enforcement agencies around the world sent Microsoft 4,713 requests for administrative data. In no case did a request for information on a Skype user result in disclosure of content.

Microsoft also aligned itself with other giant email providers like Google and Yahoo, which require warrants (i.e. judicial intervention) when a law-enforcement agency wants to access content instead of just metadata. In the latter case, police usually just need a subpoena, which doesn't require judicial oversight.

Check out the full report and a FAQ here.

What do you think of Microsoft's decision to release its first transparency report? Do you think other big companies like Apple or Yahoo should do the same?

Mashable composite, images via iStockphoto, Puchi