Microsoft, the world's dominant provider of desktop and enterprise systems, complied with an FBI warrant and handed over BitLocker recovery encryption keys. This provided the FBI with access to the encrypted hard drives of laptops seized in a fraud investigation tied to pandemic unemployment benefits.

By default, modern Windows installations tied to a Microsoft account store the BitLocker recovery key in Microsoft's cloud infrastructure. This is sold as convenience: you forget your password, Microsoft can help you get back in. What few users appreciate is that this convenience places the key into the custody of a third party, and once a third party holds that key, it is subject to the legal and political pressures of every legal jurisdiction in which that company operates.