United States government:

Microsoft provides information about reported bugs in their software to intelligence agencies of the United States government, prior to the public release of the fix. A Microsoft spokesperson has stated that the corporation runs several programs that facilitate the sharing of such information with the U.S. government.

Following media reports aboutPRISM, NSA's massive electronic surveillance program, in May 2013, several technology companies were identified as participants, including Microsoft.

 According to leaks of said program, Microsoft joined the PRISM program in 2007.

However, in June 2013, an official statement from Microsoft flatly denied their participation in the program:

We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data, we don't participate in it.

• During the first six months in 2013, Microsoft had received requests that affected between 15,000 and 15,999 accounts.

• In December 2013, the company made statement to further emphasis the fact that they take their customers' privacy and data protection very seriously, even saying that "government snooping potentially now constitutes an "advanced persistent threat," alongside sophisticated malware and cyber attacks".

 The statement also marked the beginning of three-part program to enhance Microsoft's encryption and transparency efforts. On July 1, 2014, as part of this program they opened the first (of many) Microsoft Transparency Center, that provides "participating governments with the ability to review source code for our key products, assure themselves of their software integrity, and confirm there are no "back doors."

Microsoft has also argued that the United States Congress should enact strong privacy regulations to protect consumer data.

 In 2016, the company sued the U.S., arguing that secrecy orders were preventing the company from disclosing warrants to customers in violation of the company's and customers' rights.