Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption. [... Top-secret] documents [from the NSA's Special Source Operations (SSO) division] show that:

The company worked ["for many months"] with the FBI [...] – which acts as the liaison between the intelligence agencies and Silicon Valley on Prism – [...] to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive OneDrive (renamed). [...] "This success is the result of the FBI working for many months with Microsoft to get this tasking and collection solution established.";

☞ In a statement, Microsoft said: When we upgrade or update products we aren't absolved from the need to comply with existing or future lawful demands.

☞ These communications [can] be collected without an individual warrant if the NSA operative has a 51% belief that: 1) the target is not a US citizen and 2) [it] is not on US soil at the time.

(The NSA's Special Source Operations (SSO) division [is] described by Snowden as the "crown jewel" of the agency. It is responsible for all programs aimed at US communications systems through corporate partnerships such as Prism. [...] Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a "team sport".)