Microsoft learned about a new antitrust audit from the media and now accuses the FTC of data leakage

Microsoft has called on the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Inspector General to conduct an investigation to determine whether agency officials leaked information about the company’s antitrust investigation and to make the results of that investigation public.

Bloomberg reported last week that such an audit was being carried out – the FTC is interested in Microsoft’s activities related to the cloud segment, software licensing, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel Rima Alaily believes that the information was leaked within the department’s leadership, thereby violating its own ethical principles. All new FTC employees are instructed that “the existence of an FTC review is non-public information”—it can be disclosed after the Office of Public Affairs determines its purpose and makes it public in a press release or government document. The commission has the authority to do so if it determines it is in the public interest.

The nature of the information and the sources mentioned in the Bloomberg material, according to Alayli, give reason to assume that the information was obtained from the FTC – over the past two years, the agency has regularly leaked non-public information, noted a Microsoft top manager. The company itself learned that the FTC sent it a request, “like the rest of the world, from the Bloomberg material.” When Rima Alayli asked FTC staff to confirm the accuracy of the information, they were unable to testify that the request for information actually existed, and Microsoft has not seen it until now.

In recent years, Microsoft has been the only tech giant to somehow avoid antitrust investigations from regulators around the world, but now authorities around the world are increasingly raising questions about the company. They relate to aspects of cybersecurity, partnership with OpenAI and the takeover of the game studio Activision Blizzard – Microsoft has to increasingly defend its position. In October, Ms. Alayli published material on the corporate blog in which she accused Google of astroturfing – fabricating a public initiative aimed at discrediting Microsoft in the eyes of antitrust authorities and politicians, as well as misleading the public.