By Daily Mail Reporter Error messages that pop up on Windows computers could enable the National Security Agency to spy on PC users, according to a report. The error messages appear when a Windows programme stops working or 'freezes' and a computer user can choose to send an error report to Microsoft to highlight the problem, which is designed to help Microsoft engineers improve their products and fix bugs. However, conscientious computer users might be sending reports to the NSA as well as the tech giant, a report by German magazine Der Spiegel suggests. Error messages that pop up on Windows computers could enable the National Security Agency to spy on PC users, according to a report. The error messages appear when a Windows programme stops working or freezes and a computer user can choose to send an error report to Microsoft to highlight the problem
@highlight
Computer users might be sending reports to the NSA when they think they are sending them to Microsoft, according to a report by Der Spiegel
@highlight
The crash reports are a ‘neat way’ of gaining ‘passive access' to a computer, according to an NSA presentation obtained by the magazine
@highlight
But a Microsoft spokesman said the company does not provide any government with direct or unfettered access to our customer's data
Designed to look just like a genuine @placeholder error report popup, it says: ‘A log of this error has been created.