If youre hiding something from Microsoft, youd better not put it on Hotmail. Microsoft has spent today in damage-control mode, changing its internal policies and rushing to point out that they could have gotten a warrant if they’d needed one. But while Microsoft is certainly having a bad week, the problem is much bigger than any single company. For the vast majority of people, our email system is based on third-party access, whether its Microsoft, Google, Apple or whoever else you decide to trust.