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from the potential-for-more-damage-to-US-businesses dept.
Microsoft is challenging the authority of federal prosecutors to force the giant technology company to hand over a customer's email stored in a data center in Ireland. Microsoft said that if the judicial order to surrender the email stored abroad is upheld, it "would violate international law and treaties, and reduce the privacy protection of everyone on the planet." The objection is believed to be the first time [PDF] a corporation has challenged a domestic search warrant seeking digital information overseas. The case has attracted the concern of privacy groups and major United States technology companies, which are already under pressure from foreign governments worried that the personal data of their citizens is not adequately protected in the data centers of American companies.
Verizon filed a brief on Tuesday, echoing Microsoft's objections, and more corporations are expected to join. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is working on a brief supporting Microsoft. European officials have expressed alarm.
The Washington Post reports Microsoft, one of the world's largest e-mail providers, is resisting a government search warrant to compel the firm to turn over customer data held in a server located overseas.
The battle, which began in December when a magistrate judge in New York issued the warrant, also raises significant economic and diplomatic issues for U.S. companies that store mounds of data for others as part of the burgeoning cloud computing industry, which has been battered in the wake of revelations about its cooperation with U.S. spy agencies conducting broad surveillance.
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Thursday June 12 2014, @06:29AM
So, the gov't of Yemen can pass a law saying any email can be demanded by their secret service without a warrant, and because Microsoft has an office there, all email anybody has sent or received anywhere on the planet by Microsoft must be turned over? And before you say "Well, Microsoft can just stop doing business there", no, they can't. They have a whole bunch of contracts with individuals, companies and the gov't.