Machine translations by Deepl

BNR News Radio, 31 December 2015: 'Microsoft is going to tell you if you get hacked'

It sounds like a sympathetic measure, but not everyone is equally enthusiastic. "It's a bit hypocritical," he says.

Last week, Reuters was critical of Microsoft's actions in 2011. Two former employees told the news agency that they knew the Chinese government was attacking Tibetan minorities, among others, but failed to inform the relevant people.

Partly because of this, Microsoft announced today that it will send users of its services a notification if they are hacked by companies or governments.

Critical
This may sound like good news, but Vincent Böhre of the Privacy First foundation is critical. "From tomorrow, Dutch companies will be subject to a data breach notification obligation. This means that a break-in in which personal data is stolen or misused must be reported to the Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP) and to the customers concerned." So companies have to report it anyway if you have been hacked.

Access to data
Böhre is also sceptical about reporting hacks carried out by governments. "It's a bit hypocritical. We wonder if it will also apply to our own government and other Western governments." Now, for example, the NSA still has ordinary access to Microsoft data.

Big ICT companies like Facebook and Twitter preceded Microsoft. Böhre: "Indeed, they have been doing this for years, so it is not innovative."

Source: http://www.bnr.nl/incoming/171660-1512/microsoft-gaat-het-je-vertellen-als-je-wordt-gehackt, 31 December 2015.