Dive Brief:
- A U.S. appeals court will today consider whether U.S. law enforcement can force American technology companies to give up customers' emails held overseas, Reuters reports.
- U.S. law enforcement officials issued a search warrant to Microsoft in 2013 asking for the emails of an individual stored on a server in Ireland as part of a New York drug investigation.
- The case is being closely watched by privacy advocates, technology companies, and others.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft is appealing District Judge Loretta Preska’s ruling from last year, which stated that Microsoft must turn over the information.
Microsoft has argued that if the DOJ insists its search warrants extend to overseas data, the agency will expose U.S. citizens' data to searches by other governments. Several companies have written letters in support of Microsoft, warning that their businesses could be damaged if users fear their private data is subject to seizure by law enforcement.
"The power to embark on unilateral law enforcement incursions into a foreign sovereign country – directly or indirectly – has profound foreign policy consequences," Microsoft wrote. "Worse still, it threatens the privacy of U.S. citizens."
The case raises questions about law enforcement reach and data privacy in an age of cloud computing, when data could be stored just about anywhere globally.