Privacy is not dead: MS fighting US govt over email access

[mac]

Microsoft is challenging a U.S. Court demand that they hand over emails on a server in Dublin, Ireland from a MS customer. From The Guardian: http://www.theguardi...h-us-government

 

Imagine this scenario. German police investigating a press leak descend on Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt. They serve a warrant to seize a bundle of private letters a US reporter is storing in a safe deposit box at a bank branch in Manhattan. The bank complies and orders the branch manager to open the reporter’s box and fax the private letters to the Stadtpolizei.

Uproar! The US would be outraged at the bypassing of bilateral agreements and flouting of its citizen’s rights. And yet this is exactly what the US government is ordering Microsoft to do, according to the software giant’s general counsel, Brad Smith.

After bruising revelations regarding the company’s working relations with the National Security Agency (NSA), Smith has emerged as one of the technology industry’s loudest voices for reform and greater openness.

Now he is spearheading Microsoft’s fight against US government demands for access to emails from a Microsoft customer which are currently sitting on a server in Dublin, Ireland, as part of a narcotics investigation. Earlier this year, a US court ruled that Microsoft should hand the data over. Microsoft declined to comply, voluntarily entering into contempt.

Last week Microsoft filed its appeal: “The power to embark on unilateral law enforcement incursions into a foreign sovereign country – directly or indirectly – has profound foreign policy consequences. Worse still, it threatens the privacy of US citizens,” the company said in court documents.

If Microsoft loses, Smith argues it could put all of our private digital information at risk as well as further damaging the standing and reputation of US tech firms still reeling from the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s leaks.

It is believed to be the first time a US company has fought the government against a domestic warrant for data held overseas and it is likely to prove one of the most important test cases to emerge since the NSA leaks. It is a case almost tailor-made for Smith. Microsoft’s top lawyer since 2002, he has a deep interest in the long history of government challenges to privacy – challenges he says have often been triggered by wars and by changes in technology.

[Guest LilBambi]

Thanks for the heads up, mac.

[crp]

oh, it is dead allright. MSFT has lost all court decisions thus far and realistically the best they can hope for is that the inconvenience factor will be thrown out and the gov't will go through proper channels to get the emails.

[Capt.Crow]

A ! Who cares ...spooks are always spooking each other.. That's their thing... Like the tides on the shore they come and go and nothing changes ..