14 DAY TRIAL // Caspar Bowden, who worked as a chief privacy adviser at Microsoft between 2002 and 2011, said in an interview that Redmond could no longer be trusted after being involved in the NSA scandal, saying that he was unaware of similar programs during his time within the company.
Bowden told The Guardian that he preferred to use open-source software exclusively in order to analyze the underlying code and make sure that no one was tracking his activities.
"I don't trust Microsoft now," he said.
"The public now has to think about the fact that anybody in public life, or person in a position of influence in government, business or bureaucracy, now is thinking about what the NSA knows about them. So how can we trust that the decisions that they make are objective and that they aren't changing the decisions that they make to protect their career? That strikes at any system of representative government."
In a statement issued to CNET, Microsoft has refused to comment on Bowden’s interview, saying only that it treats users’ privacy seriously and it only shares data when asked by the US government.
"We believe greater transparency on the part of governments - including the US government - would help the community understand the facts and better debate these important issues. That's why we've taken a number of steps to try and secure permission, including filing legal action with the US government," the company said in a statement.
While Microsoft’s involvement in the PRISM program isn’t really a new thing, Bowden’s words are a clear indication that privacy advocates don’t see the company’s collaboration with US intelligence agencies as the right path to go, even though Redmond has often asked for permission to share more details on federal requests.