A former Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) employee who was accused of stealing company trade secrets will spend three months in prison and be fined $100.
Kikabo’s crime and punishment
Alex Kikabo was arrested last March after he leaked early copies of the Windows 8 operating system to a European blogger. In April, he pleaded guilty to crimes including sharing Windows 8 software updates, which were only supposed to be distributed exclusively to Activation Server software and manufacturing partners.
Microsoft discovered Kikabo’s leaks after searching the email account of a French blogger. This move drew complaints from many and prompted the personal computer brand to change its email privacy policy.
Kikabo wrote an apology letter to the judge claiming he was truly sorry for his actions. Although he did not go into detail as to why he leaked the information, he did say he might write a book about it sometime in the near future. The letter was published in the Seattle Times.
Microsoft’s privacy and service agreements get updates
Microsoft updated their privacy statement and services agreement early this week. This update is no longer full of the hard-to-understand legal talk in an effort to make it more transparent. Microsoft learned their lesson well when the recent backlash made the company look bad.
The new update details customer rights and covers a variety of services including Outlook email, Bing, OneDrive and Office. The Code of Conduct was also moved to the services agreement. It was updated to include clear standards on what is acceptable and what is not. Users are prohibited from sharing pornography, racist content, violent content, obscenities, hatred or bigotry. Microsoft added that parents are responsible for their children’s activities, accounts, services and purchases on the website. The new agreement will take effect on July 31.
Users who use Microsoft services starting on July 31 and after automatically agree to the new terms.
