Microsoft demand the US government – TI Journal

Microsoft goes on the offensive in the public debate on the balance between consumer privacy and research work of the authorities.

Journal iT 04/14/16 18:01:57

the vice president and director of the legal division of Microsoft, Bradford L. Smith, announced that the company has filed a lawsuit against the Department (ministry) of Justice United States (DoJ) on the legal instrument frequently invoked by the authority to obtain information from Microsoft about their customers, while preventing the company to inform its users about it.

So far, giant technology as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook had been limited to object to the authorities through public statements or, in the case of Apple, refusing to enable a system that contravene the encryption system of a specific iPhone.

in the lawsuit, filed this morning before the Federal district Court in Seattle, United States, a region where Microsoft is based, Microsoft announced that using currently doing procuratorates and courts of law of privacy in the electronic communications of 1986 is unconstitutional.

in the interpretation of Microsoft, use that has been given to such legal instrument violates the fourth constitutional amendment, by preventing inform customers that are being investigated by the government. Also, it would violate the first amendment to prevent the company talk to your customers
A copy of the application has been published at this link. Https://mscorpmedia.azureedge.net/mscorpmedia/2016/04/ ECPA-Complaint.pdf

the injunction begins by noting: “Microsoft has this resource because its customers are entitled to be informed when the government obtained a court order to read your email, and because microsoft has the right to inform. However, the ECPA law allows courts to instruct Microsoft to keep their customers in the dark when the government is reading your email or other personal information, only claiming to have ‘reason to believe’ that doing so would be damaging research . In none of its sections, the law requires that these ‘reasons to believe’ they are substantiated by the facts in the particular research, nor does it contain any limit on the term of secrecy. Therefore, considering that Microsoft customers in increasing degree store their private and personal information in the cloud, the government is requesting (and obtaining) orders secret raid by invoking the Act. This violates the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens and businesses the right to know if the government is investigating his property; and the first amendment, which preserves the rights of Microsoft to target your customers, and discuss how the government is conducting its investigation. People do not waive your rights when transferring your personal information from media physical storage to the cloud. Therefore, Microsoft requires the court to declare unconstitutional the legal section 2705 (b) “

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