--- title: He Who Controls the Key Controls the World – Microsoft... description: BitLocker encryption provides a false sense of security when recovery keys are backed up to Microsoft accounts. Microsoft regularly provides these keys to law... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/he-who-controls-the-key-controls-the-world-microsoft-often-provides-bitlocker-keys-to-law-enforc-zteu7hplr twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: He Who Controls the Key Controls the World – Microsoft “Often” Provides BitLocker Keys to Law Enforcement | daily.dev og:description: BitLocker encryption provides a false sense of security when recovery keys are backed up to Microsoft accounts. Microsoft regularly provides these keys to law... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/he-who-controls-the-key-controls-the-world-microsoft-often-provides-bitlocker-keys-to-law-enforc-zteu7hplr og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/zTeU7hpLr.png og:image:alt: He Who Controls the Key Controls the World – Microsoft “Often” Provides BitLocker Keys to Law Enforcement og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # He Who Controls the Key Controls the World – Microsoft “Often” Provides BitLocker Keys to Law Enforcement **[Security Boulevard](https://daily.dev/sources/securityboulevard)** · 6 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary BitLocker encryption provides a false sense of security when recovery keys are backed up to Microsoft accounts. Microsoft regularly provides these keys to law enforcement (about 20 requests annually), allowing access to encrypted data. The same principle applies to Gmail and Google Docs—while data is encrypted, the service provider holds the keys and can be compelled to decrypt content through legal process. True data security requires users to maintain exclusive control of encryption keys locally, rather than storing them with third parties who can be subpoenaed. The third-party doctrine allows government access to cloud-stored data without user notification, undermining assumptions about privacy. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Schneier on Security](https://daily.dev/posts/schneier-on-security-67iihusqz) · Schneier on Security · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft), [#data-privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/data-privacy), [#encryption](https://daily.dev/tags/encryption) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/he-who-controls-the-key-controls-the-world-microsoft-often-provides-bitlocker-keys-to-law-enforc-zteu7hplr) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"He Who Controls the Key Controls the World – Microsoft “Often” Provides BitLocker Keys to Law Enforcement","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/he-who-controls-the-key-controls-the-world-microsoft-often-provides-bitlocker-keys-to-law-enforc-zteu7hplr","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/he-who-controls-the-key-controls-the-world-microsoft-often-provides-bitlocker-keys-to-law-enforc-zteu7hplr"},"datePublished":"2026-01-27T10:05:49.555Z","dateModified":"2026-01-27T10:06:12.097Z","description":"BitLocker encryption provides a false sense of security when recovery keys are backed up to Microsoft accounts. 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