Under the Stored Communications Act, a part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, companies can be compelled under 18 U.S. Code § 2703 to turn over certain consumer information to law enforcement for their investigations, sometimes without the requirement of notice to the customer whose information is targeted.
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That suit, filed in federal court in Seattle, challenges the constitutionality of indefinite gag orders attached to federal demands for customer information. On Friday, over 80 firms voiced their support of Microsoft’s suit by filing friend-of-the-court legal briefs.
At issue is Microsoft’s lawsuit against the government’s indiscriminate use of gag orders that prevents the company from informing its customers when a government agency requests access to their data.
Unfortunately for the DoJ, Microsoft is now backed by a bunch of big tech companies who are also affected by gagging rules, as well legal specialists from organisations including the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Microsoft now alleges the government violates the Fourth Amendment, which establishes the right for people and businesses to know if the government searches or seizes their property, in addition to Microsoft’s First Amendment right to free speech.
Five former law enforcement officials who worked for the Federal Bureau of Investigation or Justice Department in Washington state also submitted a brief supporting Microsoft. There was once a time when the evil bad men from the USA government wanted Microsoft to release data stored on servers located on Irish soil.
Earlier we reported on Microsoft’s lawsuit against the United States Department of Justice, showing that a ton of companies (including Apple and Google) are standing behind Microsoft in the interest of a more well-protected standard of privacy. The Washington Post, the National Newspaper Association, National Public Radio, News Corp./Fox News/The Wall Street Journal, and others are all on board. But they are “speaking with one voice because of the singular importance of this case to them and to their customers”. Nonetheless, Mozilla’s commitment to transparency motivated the open-source software maker to file an amicus brief.
Microsoft has managed to unite the whole U.S. tech world against the United States government, and there’s no doubt that everyone has the same goal here, as this case could set a unsafe precedent that would ultimately impact all companies and eventually their users.
The Justice Department, Attorney General Loretta Lynch and their backers, defend the searches, saying they need digital tools to help fight increasingly sophisticated criminals and terrorists who are savvy at using technology to communicate and hide their tracks.
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Robert McMillan, Jack Nicas and Yoree Koh contributed to this article.
