Microsoft fights search warrant for overseas email data

Microsoft is challenging the federal government's authority over a search warrant which was issued in conjunction with an ongoing criminal inquiry into an unnamed person or entity. The warrant demands information stored on a server located in Dublin, Ireland.

Microsoft contends that since the email communications are stored overseas, they are out of the reach of a domestic search warrant. Microsoft also staunchly argues that if this legal demand for information is granted it “would violate international law and treaties, and reduce the privacy protection of everyone on the planet,” according to the NY Times report.

Privacy experts are concerned that the judge’s order, if it stands, will open the gate to unchecked investigations in the digital world, of anyone, anywhere. “United States search warrants do not have extraterritorial reach,” said Lee Tien, a lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “The government is trying to do an end run.”

Preet Bharara, United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a recent filing, that Microsoft's views on physical and digital search warrants were "misguided" and that simply putting data storage centers abroad will not allow the avoidance of a search warrant.