The war over data privacy between American corporations and the federal government heated up again late last week as Microsoft brought a law suit against the United States Justice Department. The battle continues between a federal government that wants unlimited access to everything and American companies that seek to protect the data and digital privacy of their clients and customers.
Microsoft is, apparently, fed up with the government’s continuing attempts at court orders design to compel the company to give the government data and files on customers often without the knowledge of the customers. Other major companies besides Microsoft continue to resist the government’s heavy handed intrusions like when Apple refused to cooperate with the FBI when the FBI demanded that they be given a backdoor to the company’s iphone technology.
Yahoo, Facebook and Google, too, have been resisting by cranking up their encryption efforts to keep customer and client data safe from the prying eyes of the government. The resistance has increased since former NSA employee Edward Snowden unmasked the government’s efforts at continuous surveillance and unprovoked hacking.
While most companies continue to pursue profit through their customer information, they believe that trying to make money from targeted advertising is a far cry from giving data over to an entity with the power to put people in prison. The federal government has now pressured Microsoft into handing over customer data and preventing the company from informing their customers of the action. Microsoft’s legal stand will be that the government is ignoring both the free speech and search and seizure amendments to the Constitution.
In this particular case, the feds want the emails of a non- US citizen. Microsoft has them stored on servers based in Ireland. The company has refused as it believes this would just set a precedent for foreign governments to demand data and information from American companies. Microsoft has long upheld the desire of their customers wanting to know if the government is snooping on them or asking for their information.
Justice Department lawyer Daniel Rosenthal continues to use the familiar government lines when he stated that if Microsoft, and others, don’t cooperate, it will allow “child molesters, domestic abusers, violent criminals, and terrorists” to be warned that the government is investigating them.
In a prepared statement, Microsoft president Brad Smith said, “But based on the number of secrecy orders we have received, we question whether these orders are grounded in specific facts that truly demand secrecy. To the contrary, it appears that the issuance of secret orders has become too routine.”
PHOTO SOURCE: Humanresourcesonline.net