Microsoft challenged a U.S. government search warrant seeking access to customer emails in our Irish data center. On July 14, 2016, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 in favor of our challenge, a decision that helps ensure information stored in the cloud receives the same protection as physical information, paving the way for modern solutions that enhance personal rights and public safety.
On Feb. 27, we went to the U.S Supreme Court to argue a case that has become known as the “Microsoft warrant case.” As we arrived at court that morning, we thought it was important to repeat a point we’ve been making since we first filed our legal challenge more than four years ago. We said that...
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Something extraordinary happened in Washington, D.C., yesterday. Members of Congress took the same position as members of the European Parliament. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce approvingly quoted a statement by the European Commission. Business groups and big companies agreed with consumer and privacy advocates. Faculty from Harvard joined with professors from Princeton. Professors from Duke...
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In July 2016, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed with Microsoft that U.S. federal or state law enforcement cannot use traditional search warrants to seize emails of citizens of foreign countries that are located in data centers outside the United States. Today, the Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice’s petition to...
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Today the U.S. Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to reconsider a legal decision, in a case brought by Microsoft, which found that U.S. warrants cannot be unilaterally applied to email in other countries. It seems backward to keep arguing in court when there is positive momentum in Congress toward better law for everyone. The DOJ’s...
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A consensus is emerging among technology companies, civil society, judges, law enforcement officials and other stakeholders on the need to modernize our country’s antiquated digital data laws. The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) – enacted nearly 31 years ago – was written at a time when American industry’s technology, customer base and infrastructure were largely...
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We obviously welcome today’s decision by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The decision is important for three reasons: it ensures that people’s privacy rights are protected by the laws of their own countries; it helps ensure that the legal protections of the physical world apply in the digital domain; and...
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Today I appeared as a witness before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Hearing on “International Conflicts of Law and their Implications for Cross Border Data Requests by Law Enforcement.”
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On December 15, 2014, a coalition of business, media, civil society and academic experts joined Microsoft in raising concerns about privacy protections for information stored in the cloud.
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With more than two billion devices connected to the cloud every day, trust in the cloud is critical. But concerns about government surveillance and the rise of cybercrime have eroded people’s trust in the technologies they depend on to store and share information. At Microsoft, we work to protect customer data in our cloud to...
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Last evening, we filed our reply brief in our ongoing legal challenge to the U.S. government’s attempt to force us to turn over a customer’s email stored in our Irish data center. As we stated in our brief, we believe the law is on the side of privacy in this case.
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Brad Smith – General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Excerpted from remarks at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, January 20, 2015
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Brad Smith – General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Excerpted from remarks at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, January 20, 2015
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Brad Smith – General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Excerpted from remarks at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, January 20, 2015
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Brad Smith – General Counsel and Executive Vice President, Microsoft Excerpted from remarks at the Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, January 20, 2015
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This year one of our priorities has been to advocate for policies that ensure people around the world can trust technology. Keeping this trust is not only important for global technology companies, but vital for ensuring people everywhere can use technology with confidence.
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Despite its name the cloud has a physical presence. It is in reality a series of data centers around the world, housing millions of powerful computers that make these things possible. This data is your data, just as the data on your hard drive is yours, but it resides in data centers managed by technology...
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University of Washington Computer Science Professor Ed Lazowska speaks on the coalition of business and academic experts joining Microsoft in its efforts to protect consumer privacy
Read MoreToday represents an important milestone in our litigation concerning the U.S. Government’s attempt to use a search warrant to compel Microsoft to obtain and turn over email of a customer stored in Ireland. That’s because 10 groups are filing their “friend of the court” briefs in New York today.
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“Imagine this scenario. Officers of the local Stadtpolizei investigating a suspected leak to the press descend on Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. They serve a warrant to seize a bundle of private letters that a New York Times reporter is storing in a safe deposit box at a Deutsche Bank USA branch in Manhattan....
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