Microsoft has recently been allowed to sue the U.S. government. Their main argument revolved around the government being in violation of the company's free speech rights by a law involving e-mail surveillance.
In essence, the company was asked by the administration and the FBI to hand over the requested data and keep silent on the matter. However, the tech giant believes that they have the right to at least inform their customers that the government has requested to view their emails.
The Redmond-based tech giant has recently persuaded a judge not to let the government out of a lawsuit. Alleging violations of their free speech rights, the judge has ruled that Microsoft has made a plausible argument. He ruled that the federal law does indeed violate the company's right to speak about government investigations. This, however, does not mean that the merits of the case were tackled.
The company first filed the lawsuit against the government in April over customer privacy and its ability to disclose the data requested. The tech giant drew support from other tech leaders including Apple, Inc., Google, and Amazon.com, Inc. Their primary argument was the future of mobile and cloud computing would be at stake if customers cannot trust that their data remain private. Furthermore, the federal law which allows the searches is too far-reaching and will infringe fundamental rights.
Bloomberg previously reported that one of the primary considerations of the case hinged on whether or not the Redmond-based company would be allowed to defend its customers' constitutional rights against these sneak-and-peak searches. After the ruling, Microsoft's chief legal officer, Brad Smith, was pleased to note that their case can move forward. There must be a solution that works for law enforcement while still ensuring secrecy.
The Justice Department and Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch argue that the federal legislation will allow them to obtain the electronic communications. Such disclosure will not require a specific warrant if such communication endangers an individual or an investigation.
Gizmodo has also reported that in arriving at his ruling, US District Judge Robart listed four separate court decisions. The decisions all uphold the idea that the Justice Department is, in fact, violating the company's users' Constitutional rights to privacy.
The battle is far from over. Now that Microsoft was given the green light to continue with the case, we can expect a lot of exciting developments relating to security and the Fourth Amendment. What do you think about the ruling and the parties' arguments? Thoughts and comments below.
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