A major tech company and the US government are at odds once again. Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department, claiming that it's "unconstitutional" to force the company to remain silent and not inform customers when their cloud data has been searched or inspected by authorities. "Microsoft brings this case because its customers have a right to know when the government obtains a warrant to read their emails, and because Microsoft has a right to tell them," the complaint, filed today in a Washington District Court.
"As Microsoft’s customers increasingly store their most private and sensitive information in the cloud, the government increasingly seeks (and obtains) secrecy orders." In 2013, the company came out hard against the government following the Snowden disclosures of mass surveillance, though Microsoft itself got into hot water over email snooping two years ago.
In today's complaint, Microsoft says that Section 2705(b) of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act "sweeps too broadly" and simply gives the government too much power in gagging companies as it pursues investigations and alleged criminal activity. And indeed, the numbers seem rather startling. "Over the past 18 months, federal courts have issued nearly 2,600 secrecy orders, silencing Microsoft from speaking about warrants and other legal process seeking Microsoft customers’ data.
Perhaps even more concerning is that over two-thirds of those orders "contained no fixed end date," at worst making them permanent, and at best giving Microsoft no clear idea of when it can be transparent with affected customers. In all, between September 2014 and last month Microsoft received 5,624 demands for customer "information or data" from the federal government. Here's straight from the filing:
The vast majority of these secrecy orders related to consumer accounts and prevent Microsoft from telling affected individuals about the government’s intrusion into their personal affairs; others prevent Microsoft from telling business customers that the government has searched and seized the emails of individual employees of the customer.
"As Microsoft’s customers increasingly store their most private and sensitive information in the cloud, the government increasingly seeks (and obtains) secrecy orders." In 2013, the company came out hard against the government following the Snowden disclosures of mass surveillance, though Microsoft itself got into hot water over email snooping two years ago.
In today's complaint, Microsoft says that Section 2705(b) of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act "sweeps too broadly" and simply gives the government too much power in gagging companies as it pursues investigations and alleged criminal activity. And indeed, the numbers seem rather startling. "Over the past 18 months, federal courts have issued nearly 2,600 secrecy orders, silencing Microsoft from speaking about warrants and other legal process seeking Microsoft customers’ data.
Perhaps even more concerning is that over two-thirds of those orders "contained no fixed end date," at worst making them permanent, and at best giving Microsoft no clear idea of when it can be transparent with affected customers. In all, between September 2014 and last month Microsoft received 5,624 demands for customer "information or data" from the federal government. Here's straight from the filing:
The vast majority of these secrecy orders related to consumer accounts and prevent Microsoft from telling affected individuals about the government’s intrusion into their personal affairs; others prevent Microsoft from telling business customers that the government has searched and seized the emails of individual employees of the customer.
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