Microsoft has been under a storm of criticism lately over reading the emails of a blogger’s Hotmail account linked to an ex-Microsoft employee who leaked Windows 8 builds._ Microsoft looked through the Hotmail account without getting a court order._ However, this issue is_slightly more nuanced than it seems._ A corporation, in fact, cannot get a court order to search themselves._ Microsoft Vice President and Deputy General Counsel released a statement clarifying the matter: Courts do not issue orders authorizing someone to search themselves, since obviously no such order is needed. So even when we believe we have probable cause, it’s not feasible to ask a court to order us to search ourselves. However, even we should not conduct a search of our own email and other customer services unless the circumstances would justify a court order, if one were available. Microsoft has issued some guidelines on looking customer data during internal investigations: Microsoft Makes Changes To Its Internal Policy Regarding Snooping Of Customer Data In the context of this situation...

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