Microsoft highlights efforts to police the net
PC World | at | by Mike
Microsoft spends millions of dollars each year developing security products that it gives to law enforcement agencies, knowing that it may not make any money directly in return. The work is part of the company's efforts to be a good corporate citizen, although there are also some business benefits from the work it does.
The decision to make such investments was never a foregone conclusion. Brad Smith, Microsoft's general counsel, remembers a meeting with Canadian police three years ago when they asked him to spend more money to ramp up the Child Exploitation Tracking System, a software program for hunting down child predators.