What is at stake is basically the future of what the Internet looks like. Do we have different islands where you store U.S. data and data for Europe? Do you do the same for China and the same for Saudi Arabia? Or will we have a global Internet?
— Arne Schönbohm, president of the Cyber Security Council of Germany, on Microsoft s fight with the U.S. government over customer emails stored on a server in Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft has appealed a court order to turn over to the Department of Justice the emails of a suspect in a drug investigation, and the case will be heard Wednesday by judges from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.
According to Politico, the government argues that although the data is stored on servers in Dublin, Microsoft can readily access it from the United States. In addition, the Justice Department disagrees with Microsoft s statements that the information belongs to the individual and not Microsoft.
The battle comes amid heightened attention to the U.S. government s surveillance practices after the Edward Snowden leaks, and as tech companies appear to be doing more to safeguard their customers private information.
On Microsoft s side are tech companies such as Apple, Cisco, Amazon and Verizon, as well as media organizations, business groups and privacy advocates. Companies are worried their businesses will be affected if customers think their information could be accessed by the U.S. government wherever it s stored; media organizations are concerned that the government could access journalists sensitive notes.
Microsoft also argues that a victory for the DOJ would embolden foreign governments to try to access information stored on servers in the United States.
The power to embark on unilateral law enforcement incursions into a foreign sovereign country – directly or indirectly – has profound foreign policy consequences, the company wrote. Worse still, it threatens the privacy of U.S. citizens.
Photo from Bay Area News Group archives
