Microsoft is continuing its fight against warrants overseas data

A US judge on Friday lifted a suspension on her order directing Microsoft to turn over a customer’s emails stored overseas to US prosecutors, but the software company said it would not release any emails while it appeals the ruling. Chief Judge Loretta Preska of the US District Court in Manhattan had on July 31 upheld a magistrate judge’s ruling on the emails, which have been held in a data center in Ireland. That prospect had drawn concern from technology companies – fearful of losing revenue from foreign customers worried that US law enforcement might win broad power to seize their data.

A search warrant commanding Microsoft to turn over certain customer email data that is currently stored overseas was unfrozen late this week. The company declined to comply. In a statement, Microsoft said that it “will not be turning over the email and plans to appeal.” This protest act by Microsoft, arguing that domestic warrants should not be able to command access to data stored abroad, has picked up support from other technology companies. Profits are at risk. Modern technology companies vend cloud-based services to a global user base — if any one country can use domestic warrants to command access to the data of all companies that are headquartered within its borders, regardless of where the information in question is physically stored, no company can protect the data of users who hail from other countries from its own government. That would harm the company’s ability to sell services to those potential international customers. More to the point, why a United States search warrant would apply to a datacenter in Ireland holding data of a person that may not be a United States citizen is somewhat suspect.