US Judge Orders Microsoft To Hand Over User’s Emails From Foreign Server b4in.org/p6ts In a case thought to be the first of its kind, Microsoft challenged a warrant issued by the American government requesting that emails stored on a foreign server, in Dublin, Ireland, be submitted as part of a criminal investigation – and lost. Microsoft’s objection was on the grounds that the application of US law overseas was improper, but in the latest episode of a saga which began in December, after the order was issued in connection with a drug trafficking trial, a New York judge has upheld a previous decision in a magistrate’s court stating that Microsoft had no case. According to Reuters, U.S. District Judge Loretta Preska said that “It is a question of control, not a question of the location of that information.” And according to Courthouse News, Judge Preska also insisted that “The production of that information is not an intrusion on the foreign sovereign… It is incidental at best.” Microsoft had argued that the same laws applied to electronic mail as to paper mail, but that was dismissed along with the suggestion that the involvement of a foreign server precluded the government from getting the data. Microsoft explained that its protesting action was in defense of ever decreasing privacy laws. Also, of course, the implications for the company’s commercial success are of concern, if foreign users become worried for the confidentiality of their data. In solidarity with all of these concerns, Microsoft was joined by commercial rivals, including Verizon and Apple, in expressing their disapproval. Meanwhile, BBC News reports that Twitter this week revealed that the number of government requests for its users’ data had almost doubled since 2013. “The social network said it received 1,257 requests from the US authorities in the six months to the end of June, and it handed over some information in 72% of cases.” More b4in.org/p6ts
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 15:32:05 +0000
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