With these words, Smith announced that Microsoft was suing the Department of Justice for the right to inform its customers when the government is reading their emails. The US government uses the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) more and more, Microsoft complained. Earlier this year, Apple fought a high-profile legal battle against the Federal Bureau of Investigations after the latter demanded the tech company to create a backdoor software in order to penetrate the encrypted iPhone of the perpetrator of the San Bernardo shooting.
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Microsoft’s concern focuses on data stored on remote servers.
Calabrese cited a 2012 paper by U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Smith that criticized the federal government’s “secrecy parade” through the ECPA’s docket system.
“WE APPRECIATE THAT there are times when secrecy around a government warrant is needed”, Microsoft President Brad Smith wrote in a blog post on April 14.
This lawsuit aims to shoot down Section 2705 (b) of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that is used by the United States government to force companies in turning over their customers’ data, “their email content or other private information”, but gags them to inform customers that their cloud data has been inspected by authorities. Daniel “D.J.” Rosenthal, a former Justice Department lawyer, said it could lead to warning “child molesters, domestic abusers, violent criminals and terrorists that they’re being investigated”. So, this is the latest battle between tech companies and authorities over access to data.
“We believe that with rare exceptions consumers and businesses have a right to know when the government accesses their emails or records”.
The lawsuit was filed in a Seattle court.
But authorities are required to disclose most search warrants for information stored in filing cabinets, safes or other physical locations, as Microsoft notes in its lawsuit. It adds that the government “has exploited the transition to cloud computing as a means of expanding its power to conduct secret investigations”. However, he also said the company questions whether all these orders are grounded in specific facts that truly need to be kept secret. In its lawsuit, Microsoft revealed that it actually received 5,614 federal demands for customer information only in the last 18 months.
In recent years, the tech industry and civil liberties groups have pressed Congress to reform several aspects of the law, which they say is outdated, but previous attempts have stalled.
The company said it was standing up for customers’ constitutional and fundamental rights.
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The large number of orders demanding secrecy, often indefinitely, violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, Smith argued, on the grounds that individuals and businesses have the right to know when their property is searched.
