Microsoft has been working very hard and very closely with the US National Security Agency (NSA) to ensure that the government is able to spy on users of its products:  That’s the latest revelation from the secret files that NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden sneaked out of the US.

The documents show that Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent security measures so that the spies could intercept web chats on the new Outlook service, which replaced hotmail, into which the NSA was already given access.  The PRISM program now gives the NSA and FBI access to Microsoft’s cloud storage service SkyDrive, which has 250 million users worldwide.  And after Microsoft bought the Skype service, it tripled the amount of video calls being collected by PRISM.

Last month when the PRISM program became public, Microsoft and the other implicated tech companies went to great lengths to distance themselves from PRISM, some going as far to deny even knowing about it.  In Microsoft’s case, the new revelations show that denial simply wasn’t true.

In April, Microsoft launched a marketing campaign with the slogan, “Your privacy is our priority”.