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Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft Are Helping Google Fight an Order To Hand Over Foreign Emails (businessinsider.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Cisco have filed an amicus brief in support of Google, after a Pennsylvania court ruled that the company had to hand over emails stored overseas in response to an FBI warrant. From a report: An amicus brief is filed by people or companies who have an interest in the case, but aren't directly involved. In this case, it's in Silicon Valley's interest to keep US law enforcement from accessing customer data stored outside the US. It isn't clear what data Google might have to hand over and, last month, the company said it would fight to the order. In the brief, the companies argue: "When a warrant seeks email content from a foreign data center, that invasion of privacy occurs outside the United States -- in the place where the customers' private communications are stored, and where they are accessed, and copied for the benefit of law enforcement, without the customer's consent."

3 of 67 comments (clear)

  1. It's scary to know the gov't is so dumb by Baron_Yam · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Such a policy would immediately cause every foreign nation to ban using any American company if they might collect any data that might violate their privacy or security policies... and corporations might just beat their government to the punch on that.

    The American government gets a little bit of above-board data access at the cost of crippling their global competitiveness in IT. That seems like an exceptionally stupid trade-off.

    1. Re:It's scary to know the gov't is so dumb by green1 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I'd have expected the Americans to use covert means to get the data they want and to pretend to play nicely in public.

      The Americans gave up pretending to play nice years ago, it's not like anyone has believed them recently anyway.

  2. Microsoft is winning this in the 2nd Circuit by mveloso · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft already won this case in the 2nd circuit. Apparently the Feds are venue-shopping while the case is on appeal to the Supremes?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...