Traffic into and out of Microsoft’s Outlook.com email service will now be encrypted, as long as the other end also supports encryption. Both Outlook.com and OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage service, now use random keys that are generated for each session.
That last change is a strong indication that Microsoft’s motivation in making these changes is to regain public trust in the wake of Snowden’s revelations. The NSA and other law enforcement agencies can only read encrypted communication if they obtain the encryption keys, and now those keys are temporary and disappear after use.