“[Microsoft is] the biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users’ computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority,” said attorney Dong Zhengwei, who filed a complaint against the company with the Ministry of Public Security. “Microsoft’s measure will cause serious functional damage to users’ computers and, according to China’s Criminal Law, the company can stand accused of breaching and hacking into computer systems of Chinese. I respect the right of Microsoft to protect its intellectual property, but it is taking on the wrong target with wrong measures.”

So what are the “right” measures, then? Offering Microsoft (MSFT) software for free in China? Sounds like it. According to a survey of 574,923 PC users on Chinese portal QQ.com, 73.33 percent of respondents said they were using pirated versions of Windows XP, and 51.58 percent said they intend to continue using pirated versions. Just 15.55 percent said they plan to buy a licensed copy of the software.

Perhaps, perhaps not. But Microsoft’s record on privacy isn’t exactly untarnished–at least from what I’ve read about them. And that makes Cullen’s comment more than a bit ironic.

Surely we haven’t forgotten the privacy firestorm that erupted around Microsoft’s .NET Passport system back in 2002. There was an FTC investigation and enforcement action and a European Commission probe as well. And who could forget Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), the anti-piracy program that phoned home to Microsoft every time a user rebooted his or her PC? And while it made headlines about a decade ago, the company’s Windows Registration Wizard, which was caught transmitting all manner of personally identifiable information to Microsoft, is still likely to redden a face or two in Redmond.

So maybe Google (GOOG) doesn’t have 400 part-time people working on privacy. But is it really where Microsoft (MSFT) was seven or ten years ago? Really?