In Privacy Victory, Microsoft Wins Appeal Over Foreign Data Warrant (zdnet.com)

In what is being perceived as a major victory for privacy, Microsoft has won the reversal of a court order that required it to turn over to the United States government the contents of a customer's email account stored on an Irish server. ZDNet reports: The case centered on a uniquely-different warrant that was issued by U.S. prosectors in that it was for data stored in an email account stored by Microsoft overseas. Prosecutors said that because the data was hosted by a U.S.-based company, Microsoft must comply. But the judges concluded that Congress did not intend the law used in the case -- the Stored Communications Act -- to apply outside the US. The judges said was a "rational policy outcome" and should be "celebrated as a milestone in protecting privacy." The appeals court also reversed a charge of contempt, which allowed the company to trigger an appeal. The software giant has been battling U.S. prosecutors for two years over data held in its Dublin, Ireland datacenter, which it says cannot be accessed or retrieved by a US search warrant.

Comments

Re:As little as I like Microsoft

[houghi]

This is reasonable good news. But it is not great news. A company won over government. However we, the people are left out of it.

And it is sad if we are happy when companies win over government. Because that means NOBODY is on our side.

Are the sheep happy that the wolf is killed by the lion? Sure, but in the end it means nothing to the sheep.

Do understand that neither of these parties represent the public (anymore).

Not sure how I feel about this

[rsilvergun]

On the one hand it's nice to see privacy, on the other hand this is basically a get out of jail free card for any corporation that wants to hide it's illegal doings. I mean, if all I have to do to squash a warrant is host the data in a country that doesn't give a rat's behind... There actually _ are _ crimes I'd like prosecuted, like tax evasion. I pay mine after all.

Re:As little as I like Microsoft

[Gr8Apes]

Then again, many consider you wrong. Why can a government claim rights over assets under another government's sovereignty? What you're proposing is that gov A can tell a company based under gov B's control to supply it with information that is in direct violation of gov B's laws, merely because it has a presence somewhere under gov A's sovereignty. So, let's assume that there's a letter in Disney France's possession. So the US gov can force Disney HQ to produce said letter if France's laws forbid releasing such data without a *French* warrant?

It's obvious to me that gov A would have to go to gov B to get a valid warrant from gov B to get whatever they wanted, and yes, that makes for a painful process. Such is the rule of law. You don't just get what you want from anywhere you want because you passed some law in a banana republic.