Posted by Noah Stanton.
On the 16th of October, the Supreme Court has made the decision to proceed on the dispute between government authorities and technology companies like Microsoft, who are being forced to give emails and other digital information “sought in criminal probes but stored outside the U.S.” According to the article, justices intervened in a case of federal drug trafficking investigation where they needed emails that Microsoft had on its servers but were beyond the search warrant being that the servers are in Ireland. The Supreme Court decision is impeding investigations, according to the Trump Administration and 33 states. Cases regarding terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud and child pornography are all being delayed because courts are waiting on the ruling regarding obtaining information that is kept abroad.
This case is among many that tech companies like Microsoft about digital privacy that might relate to crime and extremism. This Supreme Court case is an example of finding the balance between older laws and recent technological developments. Microsoft is saying, “Congress needs to bring the law into the age of cloud computing” where most information is not held in the jurisdiction of current law. Back in 2013, a warrant issued to obtain emails pertaining information about illegal drug transactions. Microsoft cooperated but went to court at the time because the emails held at servers overseas were not handed over.
A Justice Department lawyer stated Microsoft can retrieve emails stored domestically or not with a single click of a button. The simplicity of the action does not change the boundaries the warrant has though. All of these troubles relate back to the 1986 Stored Communications Act, which has minimal use when information is held overseas. The article states, “The current laws were written for the era of the floppy disk, not the world of the cloud.”
The president of Microsoft said Congress needs to act by passing new legislation. This would help put an end to the numerous legal actions that take place about officials trying to obtain private information from U.S. based tech companies because they keep servers around the world. The court is expected to confront the issue of emails from an American citizen or foreigner and where they reside. The Supreme Court Case will take place early next year.
Noah is a business administration major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2020.
Posted by Alexandra Prostamo.
On October 16, the Supreme Court agreed to consider Microsoft’s dispute over the government’s authority to be able to access emails and digital information sought in criminal investigations, but stored outside of the United States. According to the Trump administration and 33 states, the court’s decision is impeding investigations into terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud and child pornography just because the email information is stored in servers in Ireland. This is why they urged the court to take the case, U.S. v. Microsoft.
They believe the decision has implications not only for Microsoft, but also for other technology giants like Google and Yahoo, stating that “a private company has unfettered discretion to shield evidence of crime from law enforcement, simply by electronically sending that evidence out of jurisdiction.” The issue rises from the fact that data companies have built servers around the world to keep up with customers’ demands for speed and access. This is why the court needs to confront whether the same rules can be applied to the emails of both an American citizen and a foreigner.
What Microsoft is trying to battle is the Stored Communications Act of 1986, which allowed a U.S. law enforcement agency to obtain stored e-mails with a warrant from a U.S. provider if those e-mails are stored abroad. Microsoft president and chief legal officer Brad Smith stated that “the current laws were written for the era of the floppy disk, not the world of the cloud”. Microsoft deeply advocates for the fact that Congress should pass a new legislation, however the result of the dispute could have significant global business and privacy implications.
Alexandra is a business management major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2019.
Sources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-to-consider-major-digital-privacy-case-on-microsoft-email-storage/2017/10/16/b1e74936-b278-11e7-be94-fabb0f1e9ffb_story.html?utm_term=.4863bf16975d
http://news.findlaw.com/apnews/fb9b07a2c14940b0977cb35ff01166ff
Posted by Michelle Belvin.
Microsoft Corp. v. United States is a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that a warrant issued under the Stored Communications Act (SCA) cannot compel American companies to produce information stored in servers outside the United States.
The warrant issued directed Microsoft to seize and produce the contents of an e‐mail account, which was believed to be used in the development of narcotics trafficking. Microsoft did deliver the customer’s non‐content information to the government as was asked, and that data was stored in the United States. However, in order for Microsoft to fully comply with the warrant, it would have to obtain customer content that is located in Ireland and then transport it into the United States. “Believing the data in Ireland to be beyond the jurisdiction of the warrant, Microsoft moved to quash the warrant.” The court concluded that Congress did not intend the SCA’s warrant provisions to apply extraterritorially. The Second Circuit “held that the government cannot compel Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to turn over data stored overseas, even with a warrant.”
The SCA also does not authorize a U.S. court to issue and enforce a SCA warrant against a U.S. based service provider for the contents of a customer’s electronic communications stored on servers located outside the United States. Therefore, the court concluded that the district court lacked authority to enforce the warrant against Microsoft.
Michelle is a business management major at the Stillman School of Business, Seton Hall University, Class of 2020.
Sources:
http://harvardlawreview.org/2016/12/microsoft-corp-v-united-states/
https://www.justice.gov/opa/blog-entry/file/937006/download